The Indifferent One, an 'Evangelion' Fanfiction
by Traitor of All Traitors
Summary: We all know what Gendo did to his own son in every version of the franchise, and how Shinji was even after turning fourteen and over. But what if, a short time after being abandoned by him, he grew up a different way? That when he hears of people dying ar
1. Chapter 1

Creation began on 01-18-09

Creation ended on 01-19-09

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Indifferent One

A/N: We all know what Gendo did to his own son in every version of the franchise, and how Shinji was even after turning fourteen and over. But what if, a short time after being abandoned by him, he grew up a different way? That when he hears of people dying around him, he cared nothing about it or just didn't have any feelings for others at all after what happened to him, and he met others just like him that didn't care? And when he's summoned by his father, he cares nothing for the fate of mankind? Based on the manga version of the franchise. Here goes.

"I'm sorry, but due to the emergency, your call could not be transferred," the female voice said over the phone. "Please, try your call again later."

Dropping the phone, the young man sighed and took out his four-GB iPod to block out the world. Shinji Ikari, instead of looking like somebody that needed to see a therapist for some sort of an antisocial behavior or from little to no self-esteem, looked like a man with an emotionless expression and could care less for those around him than he could care less for himself. He'd been labeled an outcast because of saying things that others had shunned him for: Whenever somebody died around him, he simply turned away from people and cared nothing for the newly dead. Whenever a person past away, he never thought of it the way most would expect, and he would say that, "Why should I care? When you die, you die. When you live, you live to see another day. It's pointless to think about somebody whose heart is no longer beating." He even once wrote that in an essay for his class, and was graded an "F" by his teacher and forced to sit in a parent-teacher conference to discuss what he wrote. His aunt and uncle had to explain to the teacher that he'd been like this for years now, and that it all started when a neighbor's grandmother had died in front of him in the street. He simply looked at the corpse and did nothing more, with his face as blank as a blackboard. A cop had to ask him if somebody raised a gun at him, would he panic, and Shinji told the cop, "Why would I panic? People die and kill each other every day. If somebody were to kill me, would I care if nobody would mourn my death? Would I matter to anybody that saw me die or get killed? People live, people die. It's pathetic to even ask me such a question."

His unfeeling and indifference toward life and death had started a few days after he had been abandoned by his father and his mother's death. His mother had taken him to see something that she claimed was to be the "bright future ahead for humanity", and it ended badly. Even now, he could only remember bits of the tragedy and he cared nothing for those bits. As he himself had said more than once that people die and kill each other every day, and his mother was no exception. And now, his father, having left him alone for the last years of his little life, wasting his own time doing God-knows-what, had requested to see him, and the only thing going through his mind the music in his earphones and the caress of his equally-unfeeling girlfriend Stacy, an American-Japanese that had been transferred to Japan, her mother's roots, because she had told her father that she didn't care if he didn't come home one day. They had met in school and found that they, surprisingly, had a lot in common: They both lost their mothers and had absentee fathers, cared nothing for others that lived or died, and had no friends at all. Even when they had no feelings for others, people had often claimed that people without feelings are drawn to those just like them. Shinji and Stacy didn't believe so, but had hung out with each other ever since they met. Acting like any other couple going out like always, they went to the movies, attended special events, and, like those with problems with authority, got caught whenever they tried to steal something from a store. They were a match made in Hell on Earth, and everybody that knew of them knew it.

"Ain't this a bitch?" Stacy asked, even though he couldn't hear her.

He nodded anyway, unfeeling like he always did.

"This whole trip was pointless."

He turned off his iPod and agreed with her that the trip was pointless. He then asked her if she wanted to leave to find a secluded spot to make out. She answered that anything was better than doing nothing. They walked down the street, but looked up and saw a few military planes flying over them as they flew at some giant, black thing that looked a humanoid fish.

"Wow," they said, sarcastically.

The sound of tires screeching caught their attention and they saw a blue Renault right near them, driven by a woman with purple hair.

"Hop in!" She told them, noticing their expressionless faces.

They opened the passenger door, got in, and drove off.

"Sorry I'm late," the lady apologized.

"Wouldn't have made much of a difference," Shinji responded. "We were going to go find a secluded place to make out."

Fast forward to arriving to the Geo-Front and NERV Headquarters, Misato, after a formal (or as close to formal would come from the unfeeling pair to the lady) introduction was made, Shinji and Stacy wandered around the halls. Misato had gotten lost looking at the map, not that they cared as they were performing something different to pass time: Stacy had taken out a scalpel and were now cutting each other's wrists to suck on their blood instead of reading the packet that Misato had given Shinji.

"Captain Katsuragi, why do you waste my time?" Somebody asked the lady, drawing half of their attention to the sight of a faux blond lady in a white lab coat. "Don't you realize that we're short on that and personnel?"

"Sorry, Rits," Misato apologized, stating that she still hadn't gotten the layout of the place yet.

The faux blond, Ritsuko Akagi, then looked over at the young couple and asked, "Is that the famous "Third Child" they're talking about?"

Misato nodded, now noticing that they were bleeding from their wrists, and that Stacy had a scalpel in her hands.

Shinji, looking at Ritsuko, spat some blood onto the sterile floor and said, "What are you looking at, lady? Got a problem or something? Are your eyes lazy or do you like what you see?"

Ritsuko, expecting to meet him as a person with a case of needing to see a therapist badly, hadn't expected to hear him speak like that.

"Yo, babe with the mole?" Stacy went, getting her attention. "If you're gonna be a cradle robber, then I suggest you find another man of fourteen years. This one's already taken."

She looked at Misato, who just said that Shinji wouldn't even come with her unless his girlfriend came, too. It seemed like nothing was going according to plan at all. She had them come with her to see something of his father's and entered a dark room where she flipped on the lights.

FLASH!!! The lights came on and Shinji and Stacy came face-to-face with the purple giant that they'd seen earlier. Ritsuko told them that it was called Evangelion Unit-01.

"So, this is what the old fool was working on?" He asked, uncaring.

"Correct!" The voice of somebody from above them responded. "It's been a while."

"Not long enough," Shinji said, eyes narrowing down to show anger at the face of his father. "What the Hell do you want from me after all these years, and give me one good reason to waste my time here?"

"Listen carefully to what I'm going to tell you," Gendo told him. "You're going to ride in her. You're going to fight the Angel."

"But it took Rei months to synchronize with the Eva," Misato reminded him. "A boy that just arrived is impossible!"

"He just needs to sit in the seat. I don't expect more from him," Gendo told her.

Before Ritsuko could even say what she needed to say to Shinji, Shinji responded in the same, uncaring way that he had always used.

"No way, old man." He went. "You leave me alone for years, no calls or letters, and now, after all this time, you call me here just to play your little puppet? I'll go to Hell long before I bend to your will. Why the Hell should I even do as you say?"

"If you don't, then all of the human race will die," he told him, not expecting his son to behave this way.

"Really? Well, that's fine with me," Shinji responded, letting blood seep out his wound onto the bridge they were on. "I could care less for everybody than I already do for myself. I wouldn't even go near this thing let alone get inside it. I don't even remember seeing something like this, except maybe something that ate somebody else before. If you want somebody to fight that thing out there, go get somebody who's willing to be your toy. I got better things to do than to stick around this worthless hole with worthless people. You being at the top like you're God when he watched his son get crucified and did nothing to save him. Piss off."

"Couldn't have said it better myself, love," said Stacy to him as he walked past her, and she followed him, leaving to find a way out of the building.

"Fuyutski, wake Rei!" Gendo shouted.

"Are you sure about this?" Somebody responded.

"She's not dead yet. Bring her here." He answered.

-

As the Third Angel, Sachiel, made its way toward the Tokyo-3 city, something caught its thinking as it prepared to blow some buildings off the ground. Like something wasn't going to happen the way destiny had written it, that it was being told to go away because something had flawed the string of existence.

"Iiiiiiiiieeeeeeee!" It shrieked, looking at the street in front of it and seeing something rise out.

It was the purple Eva that it had fought earlier and defeated, but something about it wasn't different: It was still the same creature being driven by the same force inside it. The Angel, instead of making a move to attack the enemy, turned around and walked away. Sachiel didn't go and get burnt by a bomb just to be disappointed by humanity's last gambit, and it didn't want to fight somebody's puppet.

The Eva proceeded to walk toward the Angel and attack, only to have the Angel turn around and bring up its AT Field to protect itself, and head-butted the Eva down to the ground. If nothing was going to the way destiny had written it, then this battle was completely worthless, and the Angel left before the Eva could up, not even bothering to finish it off. The force driving it would probably die itself anyway.

-

Three days had past since the Third Angel came and went. It was like Godzilla, for the military couldn't locate it in the ocean at all. The city had been repaired, NERV had been on constant standby since then, but Gendo was furious. Without the death of the Third Angel by his own son, the scenarios made by himself and NERV's masters, SEELE, couldn't be put into motion. They had waited fifteen years for this all to happen, only to have it not happen at all, and all because Shinji could care less about anything and anyone and left with his girlfriend.

The End?

Well, what do you think? Should I keep going with this one or just leave it at that? What do you think of Shinji not caring if people live or die or his own life? Please, review.


	2. Chapter 2

Creation began on 01-23-09

Creation ended on 01-24-09

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Indifferent One, Part Two

Gendo had been ordered to attend another meeting with the Committee (aka, SEELE) in order to find out why the Third Angel hadn't been killed and why the Third Child hadn't done what he was supposed to do. Hiding his disgust with them, he attended and sat in front of the table and faced the five out of thirteen representatives of the Committee.

"This is an outrage!" The chairman, Kiel told him. "Surely, you can exert more control over NERV more…thoroughly, Ikari."

"First, there was the damages to Unit-00, then the destruction of Tokyo-2, the decoy meant to destroy the Angel if the Evas were unneeded, and after that, the Angel leaving after knocking Unit-01 down with no effort. It's been a week ever since that night." A representative of the American branch SEELE said. "Even without the damages to Unit-01, the bills were as large as a small nation. And now, the Angel's like Godzilla, in terms of finding it."

"We can't even fathom how long or even possible it'll take to handle the Instrumentality Project. That, above all else, may be our only real great hope in these desperate times," a Chinese member uttered out. "What about the so-called Third Child?"

"He left…with his equally-unfeeling girlfriend," answered Gendo to them.

"You should've threaten the boy with the girl's life," Kiel told him. "That, surely, would've made him cooperate. As of now, your sole concern, as well as NERV's, is to reacquire him and force him to pilot Unit-01. The Second is not scheduled to arrive in Japan for at least two months. Find him and bring him back, even if that means poisoning him. This meeting is over."

The representatives then disappeared, revealing themselves to be nothing more than holographs, leaving Gendo irritated. Bad enough his own son told him no, but now he had to reacquire him and make him pilot the Eva just to bring about the destruction of the Third Angel? It was easier said than done. How could you get somebody that didn't care about anything or anyone, including himself, to fight for humanity's future?

-

"Are you ready yet, Stacy?" Shinji asked his girlfriend as he waited outside her apartment for her as the school day nearly began three minutes ago, not that he cared if they were late or not.

Stacy, wearing a dark purple dress instead of the usual school uniform for girls, stepped out and said, "Nope. You?"

"Never," he responded, and they walked down the hall. "Wanna go break into a store again tonight?"

"Sure. Maybe we won't get caught this time like the last few times." She answered him.

Entering the empty elevator and going down to the first floor, they made out during the trip before anybody saw them. Despite not caring for others or their own lives, they pretty much proved people right when they say that those that don't care about anything are drawn to each other. Shinji found a kindred spirit in Stacy, though he wouldn't tell her that, and Stacy found a soul mate in Shinji, though she wouldn't tell him that.

"Ever think about how you wanna spend the last day you have alive?" She asked him.

"I just do what I do," he answered. "Don't care if it's the next time or the last time. You?"

"Ditto."

"Heh. If today was my final day, as well as humanity's, I guess I would probably spend my last hours with you of all people, holding your hand while waiting for Death to come knocking on the door. That or some supernatural monster from the horror genre."

-

As the teacher went on and on about the history of what happened during Second Impact, most of the class paid more attention to the unfeeling couple instead of the lecture, some wanting to ask them why they didn't whether people lived or die, while others just wished that they would leave the room because they were secretly scaring some of them with their emotionless expressions. The popular girls trying not to show fear to them, but their legs were shaking. The jocks frowned at how an unfeeling, uncaring person like Shinji Ikari, in their view, hooked up with a pretty, drop-dead gorgeous woman like Stacy. The nerds, more into books than parties and relationships, were more afraid to simply ask questions than to try and pick a fight with the couple.

"Attention, classes," came the principle's voice over the speakers. "Would Shinji Ikari, please, report to the principle's office immediately? That is all."

Before he could sigh and move out of his chair, the students all backed away and made a path for him to take. He got up and walked to the door, leaving…but came right back and picked up a hardened clay ball, and threw it against one of the windows, breaking it.

"Holy Hell!" The teacher gasped, alert and now looking at Shinji, who simply walked away. "Ikari?! You're suspended! Again!"

"Ha-ha!" Stacy laughed, loving her boyfriend even more when he did something wrong on purpose. "I better go with him."

The students backed away again when she moved to get on her feet. She walked to the door, but grabbed two microscopes and smashed them onto the floor in front of the class.

"Stacy…um, whatever your last name is, you, too! You're suspended, too! Get outta here!" The teacher demanded of her.

Following her lover, Stacy locked hands with Shinji and proceeded to the principle's office.

-

"Hello?" An old lady asked on a payphone, across the street from the school building.

"Hello?" Whoever was on the other end responded.

"Yeah, I got an urgent message for a psycho named Aki Ikari…"

SLAP!!! Somebody else with her slapped her on her face.

"It's Shinji, hag!" A guy told her.

"I mean, I have an urgent message for…a Shinji Ikari," the old lady corrected.

"Okay." The person on the other end responded.

"The urgent message is…"Come home immediately. Your aunt collapsed. Right now"."

"And who's the message from?"

"A friend of the family." She then hung up and looked at her stiff spouse. "Why you gotta hit me like that?! I'ma kick your ass like your mama did. Knock some sense into your head."

As the elderly, bickering couple walked away from the payphone, Shinji and Stacy walked out of the principle's office, both showing signs of stressful anger.

_They simply don't understand that when I told them no, I meant it!_ Shinji thought as he punched open his locker and grabbed his backpack. "Let's blow this joint like we do all the time."

"After you, love," Stacy told him, following suit as he walked out of the building.

The moment they had set foot in the office, they met up with that fake blond from NERV, obviously sent to try and recruit him to pilot the Eva when he had flat-out refused and walked out, letting the injured Rei pilot and get knocked out again. She was lucky to even be alive when the Angel could've killed her with no effort. And now, with some stress on his back, suspended for three days, all he wanted to do was go home, rest up, then go back out, break into a store, and hang with his woman. Anything to avoid anybody his sick, old man sent at him.

"Ikari!" Somebody shouted behind. "You got an urgent message saying your aunt collapsed and for you to go home!"

"Whatever," he responded, not even looking back. _It's not like I've seen a dead body before, anyway._

Down the street, they didn't anything out of the ordinary, like how they were being followed by a pair of guys in dark, business suits like they were from the Secret Service or something, or that most of the regular people that were capable of caring whether they lived or died were acting odd, like shaking whenever they held something and such. As they neared Shinji's aunt and uncle's house, they didn't even bother to care about a greenish-silver, Ford Explorer parked right out front of the house. Entering through the front door, they went right into the living room, seeing his aunt, whom didn't look like she had collapsed at all, his uncle, sitting across from her on a couch, and a new face. A man, probably in his early twenties or even late teens, sporting military pants, a red vest and blue undershirt, and greyish brown eyes.

"God, I'm going to go cut myself again," Shinji told them, leaving to the kitchen, disgusted by the fact that he was lied to.

"I'm not in league with your old man," the guy said. "I got nothing to do with NERV or the Section 2 agents that were following you on the way here."

Shinji then returned, frowning at the guy.

"What?" He asked, as Stacy went over to a window and looked out it, seeing some guys in suits right out front. "Why should I care if I was being followed?"

"I wouldn't be surprised in the least if you didn't care, but they were tailing you for one reason, which was to bring you back to your bastard of a father and force you to work for him." The guy told him. "Where are my manners? I'm Drake Cujo, but most people just refer me to just bein' called Cujo, like the dog from one of Stephen King's novels and movies of the same name. Your lover must be Stacy Kennedy, a relative of the late May Kennedy, her aunt."

Stacy looked at him and said, "Finally, I meet somebody with enough balls to mention my last name, and May was my paternal aunt. I never knew her, never met her, and all I know of her is that she had a lazy eye condition."

"You wouldn't be surprised at how much I know about the both of you, being similar to you." Drake responded. "I act as the Records Master of the Indifferent Ones, finding out whatever I can, and eventually do, about people that share similar traits as we do."

"Similar traits?" They both asked, Shinji's uncle and aunt now being ignored.

"Not caring if you live or die or if the world comes to an end, speaking of which, due to you refusing your father's demand of you serving him, the world won't come to an end…as long as you don't go inside the thing that snatched your mother from you."

While his face remained neutral, his pupils widened at the info he had been given about the Eva. Even though, he had little to no memory of what happened, the bits that he could remember showed somebody did in fact get eaten and killed. He grabbed Stacy's left hand to chill.

"I wasn't as happy to know that myself," Drake continued. "Other things that I'm more than willing to let you know because you have a right to know the truth about everything wrong with the world. You and Stacy. These guys were only told to bring you up as miserable as possible by your father so that you would help him bring about the end of humanity. I thank fate that you fought a future that is unnecessary."

_I cannot believe that bastard did what he did to me on purpose! _Shinji thought, even though he didn't care if the world ended or not, just so long as he wasn't part of some grand scheme to do so. _But what's this guy's agenda? What does he want from me?_

"Surely, by now, you've noticed what you're both capable of doing, hmm?" He asked them.

"Capable of what?" Stacy asked him.

"God, this is what happens when you don't pay close attention to the cartoons that show the impossible becoming possible. You two are Emotion Manifestation Trainees, on the path to being given the title of Emotion Manifestation Masters."

"M…manifestation?" Shinji questioned.

"An innate ability to manifest your emotions into something tangible, be it an animal or something abnormal in appearance," he explained. "Although, like how the natural laws of physics go, to manifest, you must pay the toll of matter. You couldn't just create something outta thin air."

"I don't think I can do what you say," he told Drake. "I'm…just an uncaring person."

"Well, Mr. Uncaring Person, let me ask you this: Did you ever make anything happen, even a little? Ever make anything of no value disappear when you showed a bit of your emotions? Anything when you got angry or unhappy about your father dumping you here and never bothering to contact you?"

_Well, the day I left NERV, I lost my scalpel and I couldn't find it no matter how much I searched my pockets or Stacy's._ Shinji thought, recalling the loss of the scalpel. _And while we were walking down the street to the train station, I did feel something outta place behind me._

"What of you, Stacy? Same thing?" Drake asked his lover, whom was also looking back on her memories. _Surely, they would've noticed._

_I…I do remember something disappearing,_ she thought quietly, _a knife…three knives, a big bowel and chair…breaking up into bits…and then something showed up in front of me. It looked like…a catfish-like fiend. But…that was just a dream…wasn't it?_

"You've seen yours, Stacy," said Drake, "Shinji's has yet to manifest. I can show you mine if you need proof of what you can do."

Getting up, he walked to the back door of the house and took a large bag of garbage and set it in front of him. Shinji and Stacy followed him and saw the impossible happening: The garbage bag shattered into dust…and in its place was a large, camel-like creature, sporting a trio of humps (one in front and two behind it), armored kneepads, pads around the neck, and a futuristic visor.

"Meet my familiar, Future C.T.," said Drake, introducing the creature.

It lowered onto it front legs, bowing down to them, almost as though it were being a gentleman.

"She makes it possible for me to know the future, things that may happen if done the way they're foretold…or when they're avoided. That's how I knew I would meet you here and so on."

"Wow," Shinji went, viewing this as more-better than the Eva he'd seen. "Hold up. You said you act as a record person for whom you refer to as the Indifferent Ones…does that mean that there are more of you?"

"Oh, yes. Dozens more. You and your girlfriend are the latest ones." He explained.

"What exactly is your group so interested in us for anyway?" Stacy asked.

"The truth, which has been hidden from the rest of the world. To put people in organizations like NERV, whom hide the truth in darkness, in said darkness where they belong. If you're familiar with the history of Second Impact, then you should know that that's a lie that the public foolishly believe. Some that knew the real truth tried to expose those that tried to hide it, and some were less fortunate to get away with their lives."

"Let me see if I got this," said Shinji, "you're saying that Second Impact, which was caused by a meteorite hitting the Antarctic and melting the ice, killing half the human race…is false?"

"That's right."

"And people that knew the truth, trying to tell the world…were killed?"

"Some, while others were able to get away. One such person that knew the truth and was about to expose the people that hid it was a man called Kozo Fuyutsuki. He went and turned on the rest of the world and nearly helped ended the world."

"Fuyutsuki? My old man referred to somebody by that name," Shinji told him.

"That's him. Apparently, he would've made the world aware of the harshness that had been done, but he was given an offer he couldn't refuse: Help create a so-called "new genesis for mankind" or be killed. Instead of doing the right thing, he chose the dark side. He knows what was going to happen, but he valued his own life, like any other coward. I don't blame him for doing so…but I can't forgive him."

"I wouldn't forgive him, either. Who would?" He said.

-

"I see," Gendo uttered, getting a call from some Section 2 agents about what was going on at the Third Child's aunt and uncle's. "Terminate the third person and bring the Third Child here."

Whilst reading today's newspaper, Fuyutsuki frowned at that sentence. As much as he still hated Gendo, he couldn't risk his own life and act out against NERV and SEELE.

"And if he refuses again?" He asked Gendo.

"This time, he'll have no choice," was his answer to his sensei.

-

"Rrrrraaagh!" Future C.T. growled, sensing something in the future that may happen.

"What is it, girl?" Drake asked her, and she gave him her visor to see into the future. "Oh, no way."

"What is it?" Stacy asked.

Taking the visor off, he explained, "Your father had somebody kill me…ten minutes from now."

"That…really sucks," said Shinji to him. "Answer one thing about this proposition the Indifferent Ones are offering us: You're going to make sure that my father, NERV, Kozo Fuyutsuki, and anybody else that had a hand in hiding the truth and bringing out the end of the world, not just the so-called Angels you saw in the future that I would've fought if I did pilot that man-eater, are brought to justice? Not to aid them…not to sacrifice innocent lives that deserve to live as much as those that don't care if they live or die do… But to make certain that they don't destroy the future?"

"That's the plan we agreed on." He told him.

"Stacy, what do you think?" He asked his girlfriend.

"Shit, yeah," she responded. "I live by myself with you as my company, my father left me alone when he found that I could care less for him, and I can't stand not being with you. I'm game if you're game."

Shinji, for the first time in his uncaring life, smirked at the mere thought of seeing his father behind bars with the other low-lives around. He could even hear him screaming for solitary confinement instead of sharing a cell with a bunch of guys that would jump him as soon as he let his guard down.

"I'm in," he told Drake. "Let's do this."

What'd you think of this piece? I'm trying to expand on the story, and it helps to get inspiration from others. I'm deeply offended by my other stories not getting reviews when I pray that they would, but I guess this one is my only good one. And I'll dedicate the next piece to come to whoever can guess where parts of the inspiration for this piece came from. Hints: One came from a cartoon and two from two movies. One of them was made by Lucky McKee. And hopefully, my other works will get more reviews in due time.


	3. Chapter 3

Creation began on 01-25-09

Creation ended on 02-04-09

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Indifferent One, Part Three

Taking only a few articles of clothing with him, Shinji, despite never showing much emotion, was positive of one thing: If his father only wanted his aunt and uncle to bring him up miserably, he was never coming back here. As Stacy and Drake waited for him outside his room, he sighed some relief for doing something he had never thought of doing before ever since he stopped caring of things relating to life and death as long as he never played a hand in somebody's scheme. This was a new opportunity for him, a time to start fresh yet again, and practically free of his old man.

_I'm in, _he thought as he finished packing, _and that bastard's gonna get his._

Stepping out of the house, the trio, excluding Future C.T., whom was dematerialized for a later re-materialization, got into the car and quickly drove off to their destination.

-

"Ma'am," said somebody to an unusually young, attractive lady with brown hair, green eyes and a rather pale-but-fair complexion. "They've just left the house and are now returning here."

As the woman was completing a new clay sculpture, she looked over at the young man and smiled, responding, "That is great news. Please, make sure that when Shinji arrives, he comes to see me."

"Yes, ma'am."

Returning to her sculpturing, the lady sighed, thinking of the very woman that had a hand in damaging the mind of the boy she awaited to see, and wished that she could shed a tear for her, but due to her own indifference, she couldn't unless she truly wanted to. But maybe one day, she would shed a tear for her.

_Yui,_ she thought coldly as she dried the clay down, _I wish I could forgive you and your husband, but that would be an act against humanity__…and the last thing I want to do is aid those responsible for the Second Impact and want to cause the Third Impact still. Maybe when all of those responsible for the deaths of half the planet are safely placed in the darkness for their crimes, and if we're ever to see each other again, I may forgive you. Maybe._

-

"I think we're bein' followed by those guys you were talking about," Stacy uttered, pointing to the rear view mirror.

"I see," Drake went. "It looks like Section 2 are turning into desperate fools. Could you guys fasten your seatbelts, please?"

Shinji and her fastened their belts, and Drake drove faster to lose the black Sedan, which sped up to keep up.

"Oh, I always wanted to do something like this," Drake said as the Sedan came up behind them. "I hope they like car chases."

The Explorer took a hard turn to the right and sped away from the Sedan, which just sped up after it. Going over fifty miles now, they ran more than seven red lights, nearly crashed into four cars, and committed three felonies…twice. Luckily, no police had shown up to even do anything. Or rather, there were hardly any police at all because of the casualties of Second Impact, and because people tend to kill each other twenty-four/seven, others barely cared unless it was somebody important. One of the many problems with this world now that the old ways had been forgotten.

"Never thought we'd be in a car chase like this before," went Stacy. "Reminds me of that movie _The Covenant_."

"Oh, you've seen that film, too?" Drake asked. "We're about to rip off a scene from it. We're nearing a dead-end alley way."

They drove into an alley and had the Sedan follow them down a long pathway that led to a wall.

"Get ready," he told the couple.

"For what?" Shinji questioned, only seeing the wall that they were about to crash into in a few moments.

The Sedan's driver blew its horn to get the Explorer to stop, but it kept on going.

"Like the guy that drove that Hummer said in the film…Harry Potter can kiss my ass!!" Drake shouted, and suddenly, the Explorer was going up into the air above their heads and disappearing in front of any that saw it do so.

The Section 2 agents were left baffled, unsure of how to report this to Commander Ikari.

-

"This is yet again an outrage!" SEELE member Kiel's voice shouted in the darkness as the other twelve members' monoliths hovered over the ground of the chamber. "Cars don't just fly into the air and then disappear from sight! Ikari, you drive our patience. Your incompetence, which you've been demonstrating ever since your son refused to pilot the Eva, is staggering."

"We have no data on the news of the whereabouts of the vehicle or the Third Child," said the seventh member to the first. "Section 2 has also failed in terminating the unidentified man that made off with the Third Child and his lover."

"All we really even know of on why they went with him is that they went willingly." The tenth member told them.

"Maybe we should authorize a missing person method in case they don't turn up later," suggested the ninth member.

"Later, once the matter with Ikari has been resolved, along with the Angels' absence after fifteen years since the Second Impact." Kiel responded. "This meeting is adjourned."

-

Driving into an old factory on the outskirts of town, the Explorer, now with a neon red paint job, stopped in front of an empty room, and suddenly lowered into the ground.

"You're about to enter one of the secret lairs of the Indifferent Ones," Drake told the couple. "Here, you'll find a few individuals that have joined us to go after the ones responsible for the harsh present day world we live in."

As the darkness enveloped the Explorer, Shinji looked around for a light and found none. Though, he didn't have to, as some light shone on them as they came into a large, underground garden, complete with beautiful flowers and sunlight, along with a walkway that lead to a small mass of buildings, as though the place were a blend of technology and nature.

"It's so…beautiful," went Stacy, having never seen such a place before in her life, knowing only places of hurt and loneliness.

They got out of the Explorer and walked down the path, stopping by one of the small buildings with a small "C" marked on the door.

"Kensuke Aida! Where is your mother? I need to ask her where the Headmistress is." Drake demanded, knocking on the door.

The door opened, revealing a fourteen-year-old kid wearing glasses, looking like a nerd and an otaku put together, but sporting some indifference like they did, and he responded, "My mother's at the well and I'm trying to hack into the military's defense network without being traced."

"You know your specialties as a hacker makes you nigh-untraceable, Mr. Aida. Your father, on the other hand, needs to work more at it if he's going to be as good as you will be in the weeks to come."

Bowing his head, the boy, Kensuke Aida, looked over at the new pair of faces and greeted them.

"Welcome to the twentieth hideaway of the Indifferent Ones," he told them.

They bowed back to him and then walked away.

"So who's the Headmistress?" Shinji asked Drake.

"The leader, founder and very first member," he answered. "She's also the strongest outta all of us, but due to her age, she's looking for apprentice now. Hopefully, the ones she was able to get away from NERV's bad eyes will be the lucky ones to replace her as the new head and help restore true order to this world."

"How old is she, anyway?" Stacy asked, curious.

"Not that old, but her body's failing. As powerful as she is, she still had her limitations. She barely uses her abilities in fear of damaging herself even further."

"So she needs a successor before her final breath," said Shinji, understanding it all.

"That's right."

Seeing the well they were informed of, and a pair of young women pulling up buckets, they greeted them. The lady on the left of the well, with a pair of glasses on and a hair braid on her right side, probably had to be Kensuke's mother, while the other lady on the right had bright red hair and looked like a combination between a supermodel and a scientist.

"You're back," said the redhead in a tone that seemed motherly, but, at the same time, hard at times. "Pulled another crazy stunt, didn't you, Cujo?"

"Why must you get in my face 'cause of what I can do behind the wheel?" Drake asked her. "We were being chased by men in black."

Shinji and Stacy, bowing and performing a curtsey, respectively, introduced themselves to the ladies.

"Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu of the Indifferent Ones," said the redhead to them. "This otaku over here is Ursa Aida."

"Don't…call me…an otaku, please." Ursa retorted. "Unlike you three, we aren't as unfeeling, even when told we were going to die if we stayed where we used to live."

"So you value your lives," said Shinji to her. "Big, fat, graceful deal."

"Straight up," agreed Stacy.

"Somehow, I think that my daughter would agree with you," said Kyoko to them. "Can't wait for her to meet you."

"She's off somewhere in the woods, but she'll be back later," Ursa told them. "The Headmistress is over by the lake, reading that book of hers that foretells events before they happen to her and such."

"Much oblige," Drake praised Ursa for the Intel and left with the couple to see the Headmistress.

Coming to a rather large lake, they noticed somebody sitting in a wheelchair reading a book, accompanied by a large, rainbow-themed, gargoyle-like creature with a lion-like mane. Drake told them that that was the Headmistress. Shinji, despite his unfeeling nature, couldn't mask his suspense at meeting her. As they approached, the lady in question raised a hand and had them stop their advance.

"My book showed me your arrival," she told them, her voice somehow erringly familiar to Shinji's ears, but at the same time very different. "Thank you, Drake, for bringing them to see me."

Drake bowed his head and then left the three to converse whilst he attended his other duties.

"Who…are you, ma'am?" Shinji then asked, slowly walking over to her with Stacy. "You…can't be her, can you?"

As she saw his face, she smiled kindly and answered, "I can see your memories of her haven't left your mind, either, but like everyone else's, it likes to play tricks on your perception. No, I'm not your mother, despite the resemblance I share with her. Surely, by taking a closer, clearer look, you'll find that Yui and I are extremely different."

With the memories of his mother flooding back from years long gone, the boy could see that she was right. She and Yui were similar, but they weren't the same person. This woman's skin tone was a tad bit paler that normal.

"As for who I am," she went, "are you sure you weren't told by your parents?"

"My mother's gone and I don't care about a man that walked outta my life years ago and sends for me just to exploit me. So…no, I wasn't told about you." He answered.

"Very well, then," she responded. "I'm Suki. Suki Ikari, your indifferent aunt."

"But you can't be his aunt," Stacy gasped, recalling the other woman that was his aunt that they had left with his uncle. "We saw her and left her and his uncle before coming here."

"Every child has more than one aunt, Ms. Kennedy," Suki uttered, explaining herself. "The woman you saw was your lover's paternal aunt, his father's relative. I'm his maternal aunt, Yui's twin sister."

"His mother's twin? I mean, like, wow."

"I know. They're so rare, they're near extinct. We were identical twins, yet exact opposites in nearly everything. And then, one day, before she even met Gendo Rokubungi, your father's name before he married your mother, Shinji, we had an argument that pretty much set us on our paths toward a breakdown. We never really saw eye-to-eye, what with her defect as being a perfectionist and wanting to do things for what she believes are the right reasons. I hadn't spoken to her for about two years, during which, I had gained mastery over my abilities and used my resources to gather and recruit as many people that I could when I discovered they were going to removed from existence by the ones responsible for causing the Second Impact, the very calamity that stole most the mobility in my legs as I tried to successfully save a group of children and their parents from a flood."

"Removed from existence?" Stacy asked. "You mean murdered, don't you?"

"Yes, I do, and all for selfish reasons. Most of the people whose lives' futures I've changed were to be killed off just so that their children would be motherless and emotionally crippled. There was also a future that I was partially able to prevent, but the rest had to be prevented by Shinji refusing to serve Gendo: You piloting the Eva would've caused one of the children that now resides here to become injured and then die by doctors that wouldn't let her live after her brother was forced to die by your hands at your father's heartless command."

"You were right, love," went Stacy. "That bastard is sick and messed up."

"Wait a minute, you said you prevented that from happening," said Shinji, confused. "How'd you do so?"

"I showed the mother of two of the children that live here the future that would've been if she stayed in Tokyo-3. Her name is Kasumi Suzuhara, her kids are her only son, Toji and her only daughter, Kimiko, whom we've all nicknamed "Mari" because of a story she read about two years ago. The future presented her with the fact that, if she had stayed in Tokyo-3, her daughter would be injured and her son later killed unwillingly by you when Gendo gave you no choice. By packing her things and bringing her kids here and away from the city, that future was avoided, but by you refusing to pilot the Eva, that future was erased from all possibility."

-

Nothing was going to plan anymore. The scenarios, both SEELE's and Gendo's, were a lost cause. Not only could Shinji not be found by their agents, but there were no other pilots, other than Rei, who had recovered fully, that was capable of controlling an Eva. As much as Gendo hated to even admit it, but he guessed that getting rid of his own son after Yui was absorbed into Unit-01 was a bad move. He had expected him to be a rebellious individual with some insecurities…and instead, he was an unfeeling man, with an unfeeling girlfriend, that didn't care about the Angels or the fate of the worlds as long as he didn't think about the outcome.

Sitting in his office with his hands under his chin, Gendo pondered on what to do if he couldn't find the Third Child. He was gone, along with a potential Fourth Child that the Dead Sea Scrolls in his possession stated he would kill him. Now he would never be reunited with Yui.

_I will make you pay for this, you brat,_ he thought bitterly as he awaited some sort of sign that he would get back control over the damaged scenario.

How about this one? Better than the other two? Please, review. I'll have the next chapter up soon. Hopefully, now that I've introduced the Suki Ikari character, things will get much more interesting.


	4. Chapter 4

Creation began on 02-06-09

Creation ended on 02-06-09

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Indifferent One, Part Four

A/N: I seem to be getting negative reviews, despite the fact that this story is the only one that gets more than my others. I've already introduced the Suki Ikari character, and she'll prove to be worth her introduction once she goes to demonstrate her other abilities that make her a master, and much later, all the other characters will have a different path that'll be better for them to take than what could lead to the end of the human race because of Gendo and SEELE. Plus, I think it was a good idea to give Yui a twin that was able to change the fate of the other characters in a way. Onward with the story.

"So…you're Asuka Langley Soryu?" Shinji asked, meeting a fourteen-year-old with blood-red hair and a fair complexion. "How nice it is to see you."

The girl, Asuka, sitting on the grass in front of the lake, looked up at him and responded, "And I guess you're Shinji Ikari, the former Third Child that rejected the so-called duty to protect humanity, and by doing so, drove the Third Angel, Sachiel, away from Tokyo-3 when it found that you weren't in the Eva at all. You're quite inadequate for a hero. Any hobbies other than not caring whether you live or die and hanging with your lover?"

Sitting down beside her and taking in the view, he stated, "Anything that provides a sense of not thinking about those that could care more about money and power and putting other people down. What of you?"

"I aim to write a book about a mystical fiction based on the past and present, with everything of this world serving as a basis for it. I intend to call it _Final Days to the Beginning_, with the main protagonists being avatars for their respective home countries. How it'll end will depend on whether the ones that wanted Third Impact to happen will get theirs in the end or not. Is your girlfriend really a relative of that woman that was found dead in her bedroom with a macabre doll made from the body parts of five people and a cat years ago?"

"I don't deny it, and neither does she. How long have you been here?"

"Ever since I was four, when my mother was told by your aunt, Suki, what would've happened to her if we'd stayed at the German branch of NERV. The more I think about it and hate what would've happened, I'm happy to know that my mother still lives to see every day. If not of true freedom, then at least of living to know she did the right thing in running away. Sorry to hear about your mother, though."

"Don't be. I'm not. I don't think I ever was after I started to stop caring for what had happened. All I really care for, among not caring whether I live or die as long as I don't kill anybody against my will, is those that want me for me, not as a tool to use and abuse. My father has no love for me, so I don't love him. He can rot in Hell for all I care after I help bring him to justice."

Asuka snickered and said, "Another kid that hates their old man. I've met only four of y'all, and each of you never cease to get me turned to the path of restoring order."

"What of your old man?"

"Don't have a father, though my mother was married once before. Their relationship ended in divorce after she found out he was cheating on her and had a child by another woman he was sleeping with."

"Great. Now I get to say that I envy you for you lack of a paternal 'rent."

"You envy me? I envy you, Mr. Ikari. You're related to a great woman that saved my mother's life and kept me from ending as a hard-ass woman that would've been driven off the deep end if I was selected to be the Second Child and go up against the Angel that was known as Arael, looking like a glowing, crystalline creature that attacks with a beam of light into a person's mind as a form of communication, not knowing or caring that it would've put me into a catatonic state. Although I've never really said it, Suki is a great woman."

"Stacy and I were briefed on the Angels that NERV wanted us to fight. There are thirteen Angels, with two of them being dubbed Adam and Lilith, the First and Second Angels, respectively. Tabris is the Thirteenth Angel known as the Angel of Free Will. Sachiel is the Angel of Water. Arael is the Angel of Birds. Adam is the progenitor of the Angels while Lilith is the mother of the human race."

"Somebody wanted Adam's brood removed from their scenario in order to initiate a Third Impact of their own and end us all. Things would've been far worse if things hadn't changed for the better. If left unchanged, you would've killed that guy, Toji, against your will and ask an important question later on: "How many people do you have to kill to save humanity?" However much the question would've been ignored, it was an honorable question. How can you justify saving it by killing it? You can't go end somebody's life and then say something like, "The end justifies the means." It would be cruel and intolerable to the person that lost their life in a battle just because they wanted to save somebody else that they held dear."

"That sounded almost like philosophy, Ms. Soryu," he told her. "You're right, it would be intolerable and cruel to whoever had to die because of that. All life is sacred."

"Were you told what really caused the Second Impact?" She asked him, and he nodded that he knew. "Although life is sacred, people that wish to be God and control the world are as cruel as the Angels we were told about that want to start their own would-be version of Third Impact, which is believed to remove all humans from the planet. Man found their god, and in its folly, tried to make him their toy, and for that, Man was punished, and the god they longed for vanished without a trace. But, not learning their lesson, Man tried to resurrect their god, with its own hands, and from their god was born a thing created in the image of their maker. That was Adam. And from Adam came the image of Man…"

"The Eva," they both said at the same time, looking each other in the eye.

"As long as we keep away from them," said Asuka alone.

"The Angels won't come at all," finished Shinji. "But NERV's not stupid. They're sure to find me, force me to pilot the monster that took my mother, body and all, just to help the ones that tried to ruin the world. I may not care for everyone, but I'm willing to care about some of them, just as I care for Stacy…and as much as I'm willing to care for a potential new friend."

Holding his right hand out to her, he made a big step in forming a painful, invisible bond with the redhead. Asuka, looking at his expressionless face with her own, accepted his hand and shook it, seeing that if things had happened the way they would've without their being indifferent, they would've, in the far-off future, be on a beach of the dead, watching a large corpse decompose very slowly, left alone because of humanity's arrogance.

"You and your girlfriend," she said as she got up off the ground. "Have you gone all the way with her yet?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I need tips on how to find a boyfriend that actually wants me for me."

"You'll get plenty of chances. What about Suzuhara? He seems like a good candidate for you?"

"Nope, he has a current love interest in Tokyo-3, but he can't see her much of the time on account of trying to avoid being recruited into NERV or being blackmailed. He may still have his mother and sister with him, but he won't risk losing people he cares about. And I don't have eyes set on Aida. He's solely interested in things relating to the military, just like the otaku he always is."

"Heh-heh. I think I'm going to like it here."

-

There were often times when Ritsuko wished that Shinji would've just cooperated for NERV…and there were times when she suspected he remembered more than he realized when he saw the Eva again. But what really got her ticked was when she showed up at his school, trying nicely to persuade him to come back to Tokyo-3 and talk to his father, and he outright refused, wanting nothing to do with the Eva or his father. And then, there was his girlfriend, whom they had no record of yet due to her being from a different part of the world where NERV's presence was not felt. She could've been a theoretical weakness that could've been used against him if he didn't cooperate with them, but there was always a pair of voices in the back of her head that told her that blackmailing him with her life was impossible, for he would sooner walk into Hell than get into the Eva and fight in a war that wasn't his problem.

_The relationship between men and women is so logical,_ she thought as she worked on the Magi Supercomputer, trying to find whatever information there was on the girl he was with when they first arrived only to leave in the middle of the danger with the Third Angel, whom, after it knocked Rei out of the way, left the city without even trying to get into NERV headquarters, even though there was nothing left in its way from doing so and obliterating the human race. _He's so unlike his father, and that girl never left his side. She seemed familiar, but I can't place her face anywhere in the past._

_Why do you help him like she did?_ She heard a voice in her head, catching her attention as she looked around, seeing no one but her protégé, Maya Ibuki, since it was late at night. _I've seen the probable future, things that were and things that can never be now. You didn't cause the Second Impact, but you're aiming to start the Third Impact, which cannot be allowed. He doesn't love you, and yet, you help him the way she did. Turn away from what you're doing. You'd do much better with someone that actually cares about you. Turn away before he kills you._

Ritsuko almost thought that she was going mad for a moment, but put it aside as a side effect from spending so many years inside the geo-front and never up on the surface all the time, which gave her her chalk-white skin tone that removed her fair complexion after her college days. As she continued searching through file after file of one child after another, she stopped at a file that was what she was probably looking for, and opened it.

_Kennedy, Stacy. Mother: Midori Souma-Kennedy, deceased. Father: Roy Kennedy, estranged. Maternal aunt: Mima Souma, deceased. Paternal aunt: May Kennedy, deceased. _She read the file bits, but stopped at the last bit. _May Kennedy? That woman born with the lazy eye and had very few interactions with people and was found dead in her apartment after she killed five people? Shinji's girlfriend's related to her? This may prove interesting._

-

"I think you'll like it here in this cabin," said Drake to Stacy, as he showed her around hers and Shinji's quarters.

Noticing the features around the place, the girl liked that it demonstrated a lived in feeling.

"Thank you," she told him as she sat down on a large bed, looking over at a counter and seeing a sculpture of a creature she couldn't tell if was a type of shovel, squid or even a crazy dildo. "What…is that?"

Looking at the sculpture, he chuckled and said, "That would be the Fourth Angel, Shamshel, the Angel after Sachiel."

"Another monstrosity that won't show due to my love rejecting the Eva?"

"Most likely. You had best rest up. You and Shinji start training on how to use your abilities tomorrow."

Bowing his head and then leaving her to her privacy, he left the cabin to return to his. Left to her lonesome and waiting for Shinji to retire as well, Stacy lied down and fell to sleep. A couple of minutes after she did so, Shinji came in and got into bed with her, falling asleep.

The next chapter will involve Kozo and Tabris a bit. Kozo being visited by the same mental voice and Tabris being sent by SEELE as the Fourth Child instead of the Fifth Child. If possible, there may be a little Ritsuko/Maya relationship and some insight to what will become Yui trapped in the Eva still.


	5. Chapter 5

Creation began on 02-10-09

Creation ended on 02-17-09

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Indifferent One, Part Five

"…What else have you got for me on today's 'to do pile'?" Misato asked Ritsuko as she sat down in the faux blond's office and drunk some coffee.

"Well, the only news on NERV's future is that the Marduk Institute found the Fourth Child yesterday," she responded. "He should be over the day after tomorrow."

"They found the Fourth already? Why send another when the Angels haven't shown up since that day the Third Angel came, knocked Rei down, and left?"

"Possibly just a precautionary move," Ritsuko plainly explained, trying to get her mind off the mysterious voice she heard just two nights ago. "Just 'cause they don't show up for fifteen years and then show up only to disappear again doesn't mean that they won't do it again. We nearly faced extinction thanks to that uncaring brat that chose to leave in the middle of a war."

"Are you on the rag again?" Misato joked, trying to not remember that day that they nearly died. _That Angel could've chose to destroy us after it took Rei out, but it chose to leave, like there's was nothing to gain afterwards._

"Here," went Ritsuko to her, handing her a folder.

"Huh?"

"The Fourth Child's file."

"Oh. Thanks. Let's see. _Kaworu "Tabris" Nagisa. Mother: Mimiko Nagisa, deceased. Father: Zhao Nagisa, deceased. Maternal aunt: Elsa Nagisa. Age: Fourteen. Birthday: September thirteenth, two-thousand._" She read, but stopped at his birthday piece. _September thirteenth? That's the same day as Second Impact. He must've been cursed being born under a bad, starry night. That was the worst event of history._

_If only you knew the truth to what your organization was trying to attempt. _A mysterious voice came and went, startling her.

"Ritsuko, did you say something just now?" She asked her friend.

"Un-uh, why?" She responded.

"Nothing," she lied and then left to go to the bathroom.

-

"I doubt she'll be grateful if he's ever brought back here," said Kozo to Gendo. "To me, you, or anyone, for that matter."

Gendo said nothing as he sat at his desk, still trying to think of an alternate backup plan to make his scenario work to his favor. The rumor that Shinji had been marked a missing person that went willingly with some stranger with his girlfriend didn't affect him as much as it probably would've, but if he was ever to meet him again, he would make sure he suffered before being forced to do his bidding. Kozo just sighed at the mere idea of fourteen-year-olds still being needed to pilot large monstrosities just to bring about the end of individuality and bring about the Third Impact.

_You chose to save your own ass over revealing the truth to the world, _the mysterious voice went, sounding full of rage and contempt. _We will get you and the ones responsible for trying to initiate the Third Impact that cannot and will not be achieved, and when we do, you will wish you had revealed the truth to the world before you made a deal with Satan's legion, Fuyutsuki!_

"What?" He questioned. "Did you hear a voice just now, Ikari?"

"No, I did not," he answered.

Kozo then walked out, starting to question how much of his sanity he had left.

_You're not going crazy, though you probably wished you were institutionalized years ago, _the voice went again. _You won't escape your penalty when we come for you and the others aiming for the Third Impact. If the Akagi woman's that smart, she'll do the right thing and turn away from helping commit global genocide. Gendo Ikari and yourself will not be so fortunate._

Stepping into an elevator and heading to find Akagi, the voice went on and on about what he could've done instead of cutting a deal with the ones aiming to cause the end of the world for sparing him death. When the elevator stopped at the floor he was heading for, he got out and walked down a hall to her office. The voice became angrier, calling him out as a traitor and a minion of Satan wrapped in the flesh of Man. He reached her office and opened her door to step inside, but saw something he wished he hadn't seen: Ritsuko, and her protégé, Maya Ibuki, kissing each other.

"Aaaahh!!" He gasped, shutting his eyes.

"Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki," went Ritsuko, as he opened his eyes again, seeing only her this time. "Is there something wrong?"

He looked around, expecting to see her assistant, but couldn't see a trace of her, and said, "Just voices in my head.

"You sound like Captain Katsuragi right now," she told him. "She thought I had spoken to her when she asked if I had said something."

"Don't you ever hear voices in your head that actually talk to you?" He asked her. "Telling you to do things that you would or wouldn't probably do that relate to things that nobody else knows about?"

Ritsuko then realized that he was talking in code, and told him to close the door.

"Was this voice in your head a woman's voice that was either talking about what was or what we're trying to do?" She questioned.

"For me, it was both. What I could've done but didn't do, and that I wouldn't be spared what was going to happen later. It even spoke of you, saying that if you were smart enough, you'd do what it claimed was the right thing and turn away from all this."

"That voice's been in my head only once, telling me I that, though I wasn't responsible for the Second Impact, I'm helping to trigger the Third Impact, which it says cannot be allowed." She told him, intentionally keeping out the other bits she didn't want anybody else finding out about. "Either we're both going crazy along with whoever else heard that voice in their heads…or someone that isn't affiliated with NERV or SEELE or any organization we know of…knows what's going on and is warning us not to continue."

"And that the ones that didn't do what they thought or knew they should've done years ago will be punished."

"For now, we should tell no one of this conversation. Who knows what could happen?"

"It can't be any worse than Ikari's son turning away from the Eva when the Angel came."

-

_He seemed so much like my sister when he showed up here,_ thought a woman, floating amongst the darkness around her. _Shinji, I just wanted to make the world a better place for you…and you looked so angry at everybody. I waited for you to come back._

As Yui continuously floated in the darkness, her thoughts turned from her son's behavior the day he showed up at NERV…to her twin sister, whom she had expected of not surviving the effects of Second Impact when it happened. Suki and she never really saw eye to eye, viewing things of the world a bit differently: Where she would see it through the eyes of a scientist without fear, Suki would always see around logic and statistics and calculations. And then…it was when they were twelve going on thirteen…did she see her sister for who and what she was: Incapable of being like other people because she found herself caring very little for those around her if they got hurt…and demonstrating certain abilities that only existed in science-fiction, such as telekinesis and a slight degree of telepathy, which seemed to get stronger the more she worked on developing them and any other abilities she had. Yui had even tried to persuade Suki in letting scientists examine her, only to be yelled at and hated for suggesting that she, as a person that was trying to care for others in her own way, would be willingly condemned as a piece of somebody's research.

"_It's that scientific crap that makes me hate you more than whatever else it is that you do to convince me to see things your way!"_ She could still hear her words in her head as the memories became sharp and clear like a movie. _"If you want to see somebody like me as a research specimen, go condemn your future relatives if they ever turn out like me to that fate! And if something terrible were to happen in the future and we're to meet again and I end up in an deteriorated state, I'd probably wanna condemn you to jail for even suggesting that I do such a thing! Yui, my twin sister, you disgrace me with you logics and statistics."_

_I'd never seen her that angry with me before,_ she thought as the darkness changed to an environment that resembled a perpetual wasteland of a city in ruins, with rain soaking everything, including her nude body. _If we ever do meet again, I'd apologize for everything I said and did. To you and Shinji._

-

Looking over at the city that doubled as a would-be fortress against the Angels, stood a boy of fourteen years, with pale skin, light-grey hair and crimson red eyes, dressed in only a white school shirt and black pants. He had a look of sadness on his face, knowing why he was there…and hating the destiny that was chosen for him against his will. Ever since he lost both his parents and was ripped away from his aunt when he was five years old, he'd been left in the possession of some people he grew to despise after being subjected to endless experimentation. His parents, who only lived in photographs and silent memories, died in a car crash just after they had left the hospital with him when he went for his checkup, and then his aunt was forced to give him up after only four months of custody over him, and now, after nine more years of pain, his guardians made him their perfect little soldier, and gave him an offer he couldn't refuse: If he did their 'little' assignment for them, he would be returned to his aunt and left alone for the rest of their lives. As much as he hated his caretakers, he jumped at the chance of returning to the only family he had left…and became the Thirteenth Angel, Tabris, his mother's nickname for him, for he'd been her good luck charm the day he was born during the midst of an earthquake that ravaged their family's dead town.

_Make no mistake, I'll do my job if it means to be returned to my family, _he thought as he looked up at the pale moonlight. _Crazy bastards of SEELE._

Boo-yah! This makes the fifth chapter! How about that? SEELE makes a human being into an Angel to help them against his will. And I told you there would be a little hint of a possible shoujo-ai and what was going on with Yui in the Eva. I'm open to suggestions for the sixth chapter to keep it going to be the best story ever made for fanfiction. I'm thinking of throwing some music into the background for a training program…or maybe even a lemon chapter between Shinji and Stacy. Any suggestions, people that review me? Huh?


	6. Chapter 6

Creation began on 02-25-09

Creation ended on 03-02-09

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Indifferent One, Part Six

A/N: After some careful thinking, I've decided to have this chapter show a little of an alternate to the seventh volume of the manga. That's right! It doesn't go to the Angels, but it goes to the brother and friends that were betrayed to save one's own ass. In here, they get spared pain and death. I shall be using a dictionary and other sources to come up with the names of the brother and five friends that were left to die.

Maboroshi Kaji, a member of the Indifferent Ones that had two primary motivations for aiding Suki Ikari and the others to bring the old order back: One was to see the ones responsible for the pain of those left behind put away for good…and the other was to ensure that, while blood was thicker than water amongst other things, his former big brother, Ryoji Kaji, was also put away for his selfish act of self-preservation and for later joining those that aimed to cause the Third Impact that they required Shinji for. Ever since he and the others had their close run-in with Death, he'd grown to be a man of few words, as were the others that were sold out to the adults that would sooner kill them than to question why they stole to survive. He owed his life's salvation to Suki, who had been out trying to save whoever she could from unnecessary termination. They had fired their rounds…and she had prevented the blood from being spilled by deflecting their ammo and sending it all back at their arms and legs, crippling them.

"Are you all alright?" She had asked them. "Don't be afraid of me. I'm here to help you live to see a better world than this one that is Hell on Earth. My name is Suki."

While he was still capable of telling her his own name, Maboroshi couldn't erase what the soldiers had told him prior to her arrival: That his own brother had betrayed them to save his own life. Later, when they had gotten away from the soldiers with the supplies that they had left, and in a safe shelter with others that Suki had rescued, he cried from the fear of nearly losing his life…and the rage he developed against Ryoji.

_He was my best friend…and he betrayed us to them,_ he thought bitterly as he was comforted by one of the others. _How could you sell us out like that?! I'll never forgive you for this, Ryoji! Never!_

Fast-forward to the present, he had grown into a well-educated, young man in his mid-twenties, serving as a trainer for those just like him, Suki and the others with defected or otherwise different capacities for feeling for others if they got hurt or died, in order to control and channel their abilities, his own having manifested once he had reached his seventeenth birthday. Able to create a sentient familiar for his own use, it assumed the form of an armored, razor-winged, Hummer-sized Stag Beetle, almost an extension of how he had a degree in entomology combined with his skill the use of a sword or shurikens. The other five from that traumatic time long gone had managed to develop skills that compensate for their lack of similar abilities to his own: Ataru Tsunaron, a man much older than he was by two years, sporting a blue and red color scheme, was already a well-accomplished archer, earning the nickname G.O.A. (or God of Arrows). Sarin Saru, a teen 3 years older than the ones that nearly wind up as Eva pilots or candidates for the Evas, whom tried to maintain a decent lifestyle and valued his relationships with his friends and savior, had developed some skill in alchemy and became their backup source of income in case something was wrong with the funds that they had. Yami Kaiyo, about a month younger than Maboroshi was, and had found a soul mate in a woman he met at a diner and begun dating every chance he had, was a well-off chef for the homeless and them, who Shinji and Stacy were learning from on how to cook even better meals. Zuko and Pong Bara, stepbrothers a year apart from each other, twenty-seven and twenty-six, respectively, became their contacts on what was going on at Tokyo-3, the so-called fortress city to withstand the Angels, the so-called enemy of the human race.

Each of them, so amazingly different, bound by their sworn oath to help bring the guilty ones to justice, had Suki to thank for granting them their future.

_We're so lucky that she came and saved us when she did,_ he thought happily as he began to teach the young couple, Shinji and Stacy, how to swim now. _If it's anything like the cartoons from the old days, she's the spirit of the world incarnated into a human form…without the added specialty of lapsing into a state of aggression that endows her with the nigh-invincible power to reshape the world into her own image._

-

"Ain't nothing so far on this end of the city," said Zuko to Pong on his walkie-talkie. "How about you?"

"Everything scope to center," responded Pong through the walkie-talkie. "No paramilitary around the streets that we've seen more than once, no helicopters…and no giant monsters that want to cause the end of the world."

"Some city," Zuko retorted, looking at the tall buildings with unhidden scorn. "Half the population's gone after that Angel came and went, fearing for their lives. Are some like us the only ones that don't feel the future of our existence reaching a dead-end?"

"Most likely. Or it's at least anyone born in Japan or Germany. Anyway, this place is dead. No bliss, life-flowing aura, humor or romance."

"We'd best go tell them of our weekly scrutiny of the city."

"Yeah. Meet you at the spot."

-

"Thank you, you two," said Suki on the phone. "Be careful out there."

Hanging up the phone, the lady began to organize what she'd learn from the stepbrothers in their recent scrutiny of Tokyo-3: NERV had been sent a replacement pilot for the Evangelions, and that most of the population there were of the paramilitary agency. While Gendo tried to find ways to better his version of the so-called scenario of his than that of some other organization, her scenario was following quite well, and she viewed hers as better than theirs: Avoiding Third Impact by removing manipulative obstacles and keeping people alive as best she could. Her nephew, Kyoko's daughter, the Suzuhara children and the others living with her were all saved and couldn't be exploited anymore to further somebody else's plans. Now, all that was left…was to prevent the apocalypse that was Third Impact from happening. The Instrumentality Project, created to produce an artificial evolution that would bring all of humanity to their original state of being…but at the price of so much pain and death.

Closing her eyes, she replayed her visions of the old future in which everything that was going to happen did happen, and saw the world they knew so well…replaced by a dead world with her nephew and Asuka, looking at the horrors of what mankind had done, and a part of the giant head that looked like NERV's First Child, Rei Ayanami, broken down by their individual and shared traumas, and defeated to the point of waiting for their deaths as no one rose up out from the sea of orange water that they both recognized as LCL, the blood of the Second Angel, Lilith.

_I will not allow any future like that come to pass,_ she thought. _The ones that want a happy ending have risen up to fight against the real enemy, trying to avoid unnecessary death and sacrifice as best they can. All I can do…until I pick a successor to give my organization to…is hope for the best outcome…so that the people yet to come…will have a future we can all be proud of._

"…Suki," went somebody behind her, breaking her train of thoughts.

Turning to see, she saw Drake, holding her lunch of the day.

"Oh, thank you," she told him, accepting the tray from him.

"You saw into the future again, didn't you?" He asked her.

"No," she answered, "but I thought of the old future which can never be now. I do, however, pray that the next vision I have…will be one that'll grant more hope to Maboroshi's brother, if he's to be seen again."

"You're forever hopeful, Suki," he told her. "And hope is something that his brother will definitely need…when he finds out the brother and friends he sold out to save himself are still alive and a vengeance wish against him. Since we're thinking jail for the ones that brought us misfortune during and after the Second Impact, how many years do you think he'll get for trading their lives for his own?"

"If he can live to be one-hundred-twenty or repent his mistakes to get a shorter sentence, my best guess is that he'll never walk freely again. Prison time is more acceptable than a future in which you're murdered by somebody you've seen and has bad aim that it takes two shots to put you down…when you're found out for betraying two organizations too many times."

"He may be one of the lucky few to get a shorter sentence…unlike Gendo, Fuyutski and company, who'll get life for what they've done, and they won't be able to manipulate the system that binds them."

Sometime later, when the nightly world above their little haven seeped in, Suki called for Shinji and had him sit with her by the edge of the lake for another friendly conversation.

"I'd like to know all I can about you so that I won't be a complete stranger to you next time, dear," she told him. "Your likes and dislikes, what catches your interests, etc."

"I listen to classical music, rock and heavy metal. I play the cello and violin, while Stacy's been trying to play the trumpet, with skills that are hard to master. I eat pretty much whatever I can, without any least favorites, and I'm nearly a well-accomplished chef. One of my major dislikes is the jerk that played my paternal gene donor, my worthless father, who sees me as a tool, not as a person. I was disgusted with Tokyo-3, my paternal aunt and uncle, the Eva, and the war I was nearly forced into if not for you saving me and Stacy." He explained much of himself to her.

"You really love Stacy, don't you?" She asked him.

"Just as much as I love another that wants me for me."

Suki chuckled at his acceptance of her, just as she accepted him as a person and not a tool to discard. Her nephew would definitely have a bright future ahead of him once the ones that want to destroy the world were brought to justice.

"I'm going to bed now." He told her.

"Rest up good," she informed him. "You, Stacy and the others have an important task to do to make sure that we manage to bring order to this world."

"Oh? And what task is that?"

"In the future…you will capture Fuyutski and a man named Ryoji Kaji…and we will interrogate them for information needed to aid us in stopping the masterminds behind the Second and Third Impact."

Sorry for leaving y'all hanging like that, but I must keep you in suspense. But don't worry, for I will make sure the next chapter is brought up as fast as possible. I hope to put a lemon chapter with Shinji and Stacy soon, but first, Fuyutski and Ryoji must be acquired and punished. See ya!


	7. Chapter 7

Creation began on 02-25-09

Creation ended on 03-09-09

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Indifferent One, Part Seven

Hearing the sound of the foghorn as the ship came to dock at the port, a man in his early thirties sighed from exhaustion and lack of patience. Ryoji Kaji, a spy under the Japanese Ministry of the Interior and underling of SEELE, defying his superiors by, ahead of an unplanned schedule and by mere luck, bringing to NERV the embryonic Adam, knowing that something this foul would cost him his life. But he was determined to find what he believed was the truth, at all cost. Little did he know, fate played a different hand against him.

Being escorted to headquarters by Section 2, he held the case, containing the Adam embryo, tightly, careful not to do anything reckless that would probably cause it react violently.

_SEELE will definitely try to kill me for this,_ he thought bitterly, _but I have to find the truth. Hopefully, this'll gain me inside NERV._

Suddenly, somebody's car smashed into Section 2's and knocked the agents out. Ryoji was left with a headache. With his vision blurring up and fading, he noticed a bunch of people ripping the back door off and reaching out for him.

"…It's been a long time, Ryoji," he heard somebody say. "It's about time you paid your dues."

Then, he lost consciousness.

-

Walking on the streets of Tokyo-3 was a rarity for Kozo, and so was feeling the sun on his wrinkled flesh.

"This place was better when had seasons to embrace," he sighed, not noticing a pair of kids near a wall, kissing to hide their faces from him.

"You should pay more attention to children, Mr. Fuyutski," said the boy to him.

"Sorry, but you're going to have to come with us," the girl added, and they jumped him to the ground. "Wow, you're not so much of a threat."

Looking at them as he was cuffed and sedated, Kozo realized that he was being captured by Shinji and Stacy, dressed in some military-like outfits. He then lost consciousness and slipped into darkness.

-

"What?!" Misato yelled. "Sub-Commander Fuyutski was kidnapped?! Where was Section 2 when this happened?!"

Ritsuko, just as surprised as Misato was, explained that some Section 2 agents were assigned a pickup duty, and were knocked out by somebody's car crashing into theirs, the unknown driver and the person they were assigned to pick up were missing, not just Fuyutski.

"So, it's safe to assume that both the kidnappings and the unseen driver are connected." She told her further.

"Great," Misato groaned. "More to worry about. Who was being picked up, anyway?"

"Your old flame, Ryoji Kaji."

"What?! Him?! He was captured?! I wonder who he pissed off."

-

"…I think he's starting to come to," said somebody, as Ryoji stirred from his unconsciousness, his vision returning to normal. "Good evening, Mr. Kaji. How was your rest?"

Looking around, Ryoji saw that he was tied to a chair and surrounded by six people that seemed vaguely familiar to him.

"What's going on?" He demanded. "Who are you people?"

The man in front of him, Maboroshi, came near him and punched him in his face.

"Don't act like you don't remember us, you jackass!" He yelled at him. "Look at us again and say you remember who you're looking at."

"You tell him, Maboroshi," said Sarin to him as he and Pong looked inside the suitcase that they had taken from their captive. "Oh, God. This is bad and severe. We'd best get this to the headmistress right now."

"Zuko, you go get this to her after we make sure this fool remembers the people he sold out on." Pong told his brother, checking out the embryonic Angel.

_Maboroshi? Zuko?_ Ryoji thought, recalling those names from somewhere. _No, they can't be__… They were killed…weren't they?_

"You sure you don't remember us? Think hard, back to the days after Second Impact happened. Hell on Earth, people making up rules to control people that lost it all, and the day you let some soldiers try to take our lives in exchange for yours being spared." Maroboshi told him.

Ryoji's eyes widened, seeing not the people as they are, but as the people that they were. The very people he hadn't stopped feeling guilty about losing ever since that horrid day.

"How'd you… How'd you all get away?" He asked.

"We didn't get away," Pong told him. "We were rescued. But we held a strong grudge against you ever since we were told by the soldiers that were about to kill us that you betrayed us to save your own ass. How could you do such a thing?! None of us would've done that, even if Death himself was facing us!"

"Don't try to explain your reasons why, you worm," Zuko told him. "We're not in the whole "eye for an eye" and "tooth for a tooth" business that everyone's into nowadays. But don't get any ideas about leaving. You're gonna be here for a while. This is an interrogation, and right now, your rights as a person are no longer yours."

-

"I don't know why you went and turned from the path that should've been taken to let the world know the wrongs that have been done," said Shinji to Kozo, as he regained consciousness, "but you're definitely sick in the head."

"Shinji Ikari," he uttered. "Your father won't be pleased to hear of this."

"Don't act like you're innocent, Mr. Fuyutski," he told him. "And that bastard is more crazy than you are for siding with him and not telling the world what really killed half its population."

"What are you talking about?" He asked, trying to feign innocence.

"You can't lie to us, old man," said Stacy to him. "We want the truth. Why else would we interrogate you…unless we wanted to kill you later…or would you rather we kill you now like how you would've been killed for telling the truth, which would've been the right thing to do, then people would know that there was a higher force at work that was caused by somebody's arrogance!"

"Stacy, please, be calm," said a female voice behind Kozo. "Anger brings negativity to the harmony here. We should allow him time to loosen up his tongue until he's ready to tell us why."

"Do you believe that'll work, Auntie Suki?" Shinji asked, stirring Kozo's head to look behind, seeing somebody's shadowed appearance, confined to a wheelchair.

"Sure. It's not like he can even run anywhere. Interrogations take time in order to find the truth." Suki answered as she came over in front of Kozo. "My sister would talk of you for nearly two hours every week before we went our separate ways. Oh, where are my manners? Allow me to introduce myself. I am Suki Ikari, Yui's sister, and I see you've met my nephew, Shinji and his lover, Stacy once already."

_Yui never said anything about having a sister,_ Kozo thought, seeing that this woman looked just like Yui, but only slightly older and much more…like a free spirit of something with an indifferent heart. "I would almost say that Yui was still alive, just bound to a wheelchair."

"I can still walk, old man," Suki retorted. "Just not so much and not as freely as those that aren't crippled can. And I'm not like Yui. She couldn't see through the consequences of her actions with all that crack on science and such. It may be people's greatest strength, but it's also a curse…'cause people, like the ones at NERV, abuse it carelessly. We can either do the interrogation the simple and painless way…or we can be rough. Your choice, Kozo, though I'd rather we do it painlessly. I don't like to see people dying. We'll give you until tomorrow to decide if you're going to tell us what we wanna know."

The three left the old man alone in the room he was confined to, wondering what he was going to do.

Meanwhile, Suki had been informed about the Adam embryo that Ryoji had with him.

"Adam…the First Angel…the true cause of Second Impact. Just what was NERV planning to do with it? There's still so much that we're trying to find out in order to keep from happening, but the present comes at us too much to understand."

"I got a theory on why," said Shinji to her. "Maybe that bastard was intending to use the Angel to give him control over the rest of existence in a controlled Third Impact."

"You might be right, Shinji, but just to be sure that that doesn't happen, we'll have to hoard away the Angel until we can think of something else to do with it."

"Where can we hoard it?" Stacy asked. "If we put it somewhere we know others can get into, things might go bad."

"Can I trust you two with its safety if I were to let you hold onto it?" Suki asked them.

Shinji knelt to her and said, "To hoard that creature in our cabin would be like protecting vast treasures from the enemy…until the ones seeking the treasure for the right reasons decide to show up."

Suki smiled and handed the case to them, saying, "Then I shall leave its protection to you two. If that Angel stays as it is, then, we shouldn't have a future problem. Once something better comes up, we'll decide on how to dispose of it."

-

Looking out her window, at the darkness of the night, Rei Ayanami wondered curiously, of all things past and present, why Shinji wouldn't pilot the Eva, even when the fate of the human race was on the line. She couldn't even contemplate his lack of concern for her as she was wheeled in as he and the girl he was with walked away.

_Commander Ikari said he was a reserve pilot,_ she thought, _and yet, he chose not to pilot, instead, choosing to walk away, like it wasn't his problem. I should look into his profile to know who he is and why he turned away._

Sorry to end it off here, but I need to hold onto the goods that'll come to those that wait. Now that Fuyutski and Ryoji, along with the Adam embryo have been taken by the Indifferent Ones, what'll happen next? If I told you, then, it wouldn't be a surprise to those waiting. More reviews, please! I hope to end this series with a good ending that'll rival the other good writers of the series.


	8. Chapter 8

Creation began on 03-10-09

Creation ended on 03-14-09

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Indifferent One, Part Eight

The sky was a supernatural night, with a red streak that caught the air and the moon. The ground was littered with debris, as though a war had ravaged the Earth, and all the waters were changed from their ordinary blue to reddish-orange. LCL, the blood of Lilith. The decomposing corpse of the large, snow-white Angel, Lilith, had created a horrid sight of destruction, and the only person able to witness this disaster was the girl that had been brought up to take part in it.

"What is this?" Rei Ayanami asked to no one in particular, as there was no one around to respond.

"This is what the world would've come to if not for Shinji rejecting the Eva," another voice entered the beginning conversation. "This is a world that can never be now."

Rei, draped in her plug suit, turned away from the sight of the LCL sea and at a woman, confined to a wheelchair, looking almost like her, only older and distant, despite the physical closeness between them, being only four feet.

"Who are you?" She asked her. "Identify yourself."

"I'm not a soldier, girl, so I don't need to say my name to you, and I wouldn't. Not with your attitude. You could say 'please' to get a better response." The woman told her.

"Who are you, please?"

"That's better. I am Suki. You?"

"Ayanami, Rei."

"Nice to meet you, even if it's only in a dreamworld that represented what the future would've been like. Care to converse further?"

"I will if I'm ordered to."

"Now, that's your problem. You live as though you must take an order from that bastard in order to do something. If he ordered you to kill yourself, would you do it?"

"Yes, I would."

"Then, you shouldn't follow orders, then. You should follow requests, Ms. Ayanami. Requests are more tolerable than orders. Someone asks you to come with them for a positive reason, you should accept the invitation. Should someone ask you out on a date, you should respond your answer. I know it's only a dream, but I'd like know what I can about you if I tell you what I can about myself. I was born in nineteen-seventy. What year was you born?"

"Two-thousand-four."

"So then, you should be only twelve and yet, you look like you're fourteen. But then again, looks are deceiving. Do you have any hobbies?"

"I have no hobbies."

"That's bad. A girl's gotta have hobbies. Any social relationships?"

"Only with Commander Ikari."

"You mean Gendo? I pity you."

"Why do you pity me?"

"That man cannot be trusted in any relationship with any person. He severs all ties with those that no longer serve a purpose to him. He was going to do so with my nephew and I couldn't allow for my only, living blood relation to fall from rising grace due to a fool's arrogance. He lost all rights to be of any value to Shinji the moment he called for him to pilot the Eva that took my sister."

"And that is why you pity me?"

"More or less. I cannot see into the future all the time, but if I could, I'd look into the future of one like yourself and pray for a positive outcome…and not this representation of what cannot be allowed…where my nephew is left with a new friend of his by himself to suffer for eternity because of the guilty ones' black-hearted plans to cause Third Impact. I, along with people that deserve to live in the new world without people in the background trying to ruin our lives to suit their own, are trying to achieve what has never been attempted before, and that is to alter the future by affecting the present without causing a casualty or more. No blood shall be spilt in the name of restoring order."

"You said that the boy that was to be the Third Child is your nephew… Is he living happily?" Rei asked her.

"Very happily," Suki answered. "Although he never shows it much, I can feel his happiness within my own heart. It brings me silent tears to know that he's caring for those he lets into his life, his lover being at the top of his list of loved ones. I pray that when we achieve the goal and put the guilty away behind bars, those two can live in peace and have a happy life together somewhere."

Suki noticed how the girl had a resemblance to her that reminded her of her sister and wondered, _If so much of the future has been avoided and altered…then maybe a future for her is in the making._

-

Rei awoke to the new day, remembering only bits of the dream she had, being the very first dream ever. It had felt good to converse with that woman in the wheelchair, to know what kind of person Shinji was turning into, and to see that, regardless of what NERV would do, the Angels wouldn't come back unless it was Shinji that got inside Unit-01, which would never happen. But a new thought occurred to her: _Should Commander Ikari know of this, he'll be furious and driven to remove the Angels. That'll mean he'll hunt Shinji down and if he finds him, he may take him away from his aunt. I cannot allow that to happen. If he's happy, why would he try to break that happiness?_

Dressing up in her school uniform and leaving out her apartment, the First Child's first course of action was just to avoid speaking of what she found out in her dream. If Gendo were ever to ask her. As she approached the school building that had very few students left after the arrival and departure of the Third Angel, noticed even fewer students than before. Probably only forty or fifty-nine as she entered her assigned classroom.

"Hey, did you hear what happened?" She heard some of her classmates speaking as she sat down by the window. "They left the city yesterday."

"Almost everybody's leaving," another student uttered. "It's been almost two months now, and everybody's afraid of whatever that thing was coming back here. Heard a new transfer student was to come tomorrow or something like that."

"Any clue on who this person is?" A girl student asked.

"An American-Chinese immigrant, or a European-American. I don't know the exact race or culture of the student, except that it's supposed to be another girl." A boy student answered.

_They must mean the Second Child,_ thought Rei as she looked out the window as the teacher began lecturing about Second Impact and the history of Japan.

_If so much of the future has been avoided and altered…then maybe a future for you is in the making,_ a voice came to the back of her mind. _You'd no longer have to be a tool or some sort of object. You'd be your own person and free to decide your life for yourself._

-

"Hey, Suki," said Shinji, as he came over to the lake and noticed his aunt sitting with her feet in the water. "I…need to tell you something."

She looked at him and replied, "You know it's okay to tell me anything, Shinji."

"I've been training to develop my abilities for almost two months now, but I haven't manifested anything like what you, Mr. Cujo or Stacy can. What if…what if I don't have the gift that you all do? What if…I'm just me?"

"I won't lie to you, but I can sense the power in you. It's there, lying in wait, but it hasn't awoken yet. You have nothing to worry about, nephew. You're a late bloomer, that's all."

"I wonder what it'll end up looking like," he went, turning to the water. "I try to imagine a great animal that only exists in the few zoos that remain in existence, but that animal's always missing the very thing that makes it extraordinary."

"If your familiar were to be animal-based, it'd have to be an animal that you are best associated with. Like how certain people are associated with their constellation or zodiac signs."

"Stacy drew what her familiar will look like once fully-manifested: A catfish-like creature about the size of a bike, wrapped in armor that looked impervious to damage."

"Better than an Eva, huh?"

"Way better. Say, when do you interrogate the pair that betrayed the world for their own lives?"

"Tonight."

"Is it alright if I go up to the surface to do something quick? Shouldn't take more than an hour to do so."

"You know you're not a prisoner here, just promise you'll be back. And be careful not to let anybody that recognize your face that you don't know see you. They'll be looking for you."

"Yes, Suki."

Shinji hugged his aunt dearly as he left her to return to the surface. Suki trusted him greatly to even allow him to keep the reason to why he wanted to go to the surface.

_In time,_ she thought, placing her left hand over her heart. _In time, we'll be ready to go after them. The ones wanting Third Impact will get theirs in the end._

The next chapter will be pretty much a piece from the fifth volume of the manga. In addition to it, a bit of another verbal battle between our main character whom the world had exploited and abused for their own purposes…and the jerk that left him alone after the tragedy caused by another jerk, along with some physical abuse. Please, more reviews.


	9. Chapter 9

Creation began on 03-14-09

Creation ended on 03-16-09

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Indifferent One, Part Nine

Entering the cemetery that played host to over a thousand tombstones, Shinji, carrying a dead rose as a symbol of how he felt for those that were gone, stopped by a grave that had the name of a woman that held no spot in his heart anymore that was warm. If any place, it was in the dark abyss where he kept everyone else he had no feelings for. Tossing the rose at the tombstone, he smirked coldly at its phantom memory of a woman that couldn't see past her choices…or the consequences that followed.

_And to think I almost tried to recall you,_ he thought bitterly, and then he kicked dirt at it. _I could care even less for you than I do that bastard that dumped me at his crazy relatives' to raise me into a fool that was desperate for acknowledgement from everybody. Your sister, Suki, is worlds…dimensions better than you probably thought you could've been! To choose science like other idiots, you probably deserved what came to you. A bright future for humanity, my ass! Your 'bright future' was Hell on Earth. The more-deserving bright future is one where the innocent aren't sacrificed and the guilty are punished. We're probably gonna be something like the Punisher from the comics. We're waiting…watching… The guilty will be punished._

"Shinji?" He frowned and turned around to see the person that used his name.

"What the Hell do you want, you bastard?" He questioned Gendo, as he was six feet from him. _If he tries anything, he's gonna wish he never tried anything._

"Never expected you to come here to see her," Gendo said to him, but then saw the dead rose. "She wouldn't like a dead flower."

"I don't give a damn what she likes. The woman's dead. Why should I care about a woman I barely remember and have chosen to put behind me? If you try anything to me, you will not get away with your crimes, past, present or future."

"Other than paying my respect to Yui, I'm here to try and have you come back to NERV."

"I thought I told you, your lackeys, and anybody else that wanted me for your crazy pack of freaks, I'm not going anywhere near that monster. I'm not fighting those creatures you call Angels nor will I serve you. If you want to bring about a Third Impact, go kill your-fuckin'-self."

"Just where have you been for the last few weeks?"

"None of your business, jackass. Where I go, what I do, who I see, live with, eat with, they have nothing to do with you or anybody looking for me. Anyhow, I was requested not to be seen by any that knew me that I don't care about. I can't waste any more of my time with a childless man that thinks he's God. And don't go looking for me, either. As you were probably gonna say to me if I was looking for praise from you: "Only infants need parents", I'm an infant with a better parent. One that actually wants me for me and gives a damn, unlike you. Yippee-kai-yay, Rokubungi, Gendo. Go see the childless couple you left me with, I think they're calling you to sleep with them."

He then walked away from the tombstone and crazy man that had no hold on him anymore. And he actually felt good saying all that to him in front of the grave, like he was casting away his past ties with those Ikaris and going on with his current ties to his aunt, Suki.

"Stacy Kennedy," Gendo said. "The niece of the late May Kennedy, who was found dead in her apartment, lying next to a macabre doll made from the parts of five people she had murdered. Suffered from a lazy eye condition in her right eye and worked at a animal hospital, had very few social interactions, and eventually killed herself when she gouged her eye out."

Shinji stopped, recalling this portion of his lover's dead aunt because Suki had informed them of it. Stacy's aunt had been an abnormality that had similar traits as they did, but her outlet had always been a delicate doll that her mother had given her, and it represented everything that was wrong with her life, like how this old fool was representing the things that were wrong with his own past.

"I don't know what your game is, but bringing up a piece of history is boring," he told Gendo.

"The girl is being sought after by the police," he told Shinji.

"They'll never find her. She's as safe as can be."

"That's what you think. It'd be a waste if she were to die."

"Whatever you got planned, you had best leave her, the world, and myself outta it. You will get yours in the end, just like how that old man, Fuyutski got his when he got kidnapped and murdered for betraying humanity, just as you did."

The next thing that came so quick, Gendo jumped Shinji to the ground.

"You brat!" He called him, landing several punches onto his face. "You will pilot the Eva and fight the Angels, even if that means I have to render you a vegetable!"

Shinji grabbed some dirt and threw it at his eyes, temporarily blinding him for the moment as he got up and fought back with hard kicks to the sides.

"When Hell freezes over, bastard!" He told him as he kicked him in the face. "I'm gonna fuckin' waste you!"

Now they were in a fistfight around the gravestones, one determined to enslave the other, while the other determined to cripple the heartless one. Shinji blocked a blow to the neck and punched his father in his ribs, hearing a crack, indicating a rib being broken.

"I'm gonna fuckin' beat you! Gonna fuckin' bury you to your neck! And I'm gonna fuckin' leave you!" Shinji told him as he landed a kick to his crotch! Gendo fell to his knees as his son grabbed him by his neck and slammed his head against Yui's tombstone and gave him a fracture in his skull. He then fell silent, injured beyond anything ever experienced before in his life. Shinji had emerged victorious and had some scrapes to show off, along with a tooth and black eye.

"How's this for a Father's Day gift?" He told Gendo, and then kicked him for the final time in his waist. "Tell that to the women you sleep with if they ask where you got your ass kicked."

Before Gendo could even try to get up, Shinji had broken into a sprint and ran off before anybody under his father's control tried to catch him. He felt really good about himself for beating up his father. It was like Heaven was smiling on him for crippling one of the Devil's men on Earth. He defied his old man and he defied the Angels.

-

"Ikari was beaten down by his own son at the cemetery," said Kiel to the other SEELE members in another meeting. "The Third Child was serious when he had told him that he wasn't going to pilot the Evangelion that had absorbed his mother."

"To think that Ikari could be injured by somebody younger than he is. That is what he pretty much deserved for not fighting in years." The seventh member uttered.

"A broken left leg, two broken ribs, some teeth missing, a bloody nose, and black eye," revealed the eighth member to them. "And that's minus the fracture he received to his skull."

"Tracking the The Third Child is now impossible, as he disappeared right after he left the cemetery." The tenth member revealed.

"I'm afraid Ikari may have outlived his purpose if he can't even keep in line one kid," Kiel told them. "We may have to sever our ties with him."

"Maybe not, sir," said the third member to him. "I've done some background research on Ikari, as per your instructions, and I may have found something that, until now, has been overlooked for years."

"Go on."

"Knowing that Ikari came from a troubled and disturbed childhood environment, I looked into Yui Ikari's background and found that Unit-01's soul has a twin sister that was rarely spoken about. A one Suki Ikari, a free spirit that held Yui in contempt for her choices. Certain people that knew of Mrs. Ikari all believed that her sister died during the Second Impact, as no one's seen or heard from her at all, but some new sources are beginning to say differently. That uncaring twin of hers is alive and nigh-well, hiding somewhere safe, and may be part of the cause of why our scenario is no longer valid or salvageable, anymore."

"You mean to say that a woman, not versed in science, not affiliated with NERV or SEELE, is responsible for the missing Kyoko Soryu and the original Second Child, along with why certain select few are no longer in Tokyo-3, including the original Fourth Child?" Kiel asked.

"Yes, sir. That woman is responsible."

"We'll allow Ikari to live a while longer, but see to it that he's under constant surveillance. He can't be trusted any further with his independence. And make sure he knows about this unseen relative of his wife."

Not expecting much of a problem with letting Gendo know what could be found about Suki didn't seem to bother Kiel much at all. If anything, that would either strengthen his motivation to capture the Third Child…or continue to sign his own death warrant in his own blood.

_If you cross our line, you will pay with your life, Ikari, _he thought as he ended the meeting and got to other business.

-

Returning to their cabin, Stacy found her lover lying on their bed, having bandaged himself a while ago and was now resting to recoup from his fight with his former father. In silent panic, she went over and checked for a pulse, being relieved when she found that he was still alive.

_I couldn't go on living without you, Shinji,_ she thought as she sat down beside his head. _It'd be like Romeo and Juliet, where I would kill myself to be with you. What happened to you out there, anyway?_

"Shinji? Stacy?" She heard Suki calling for them as she arrived to their door. "Are you here?"

She got up and opened the door, seeing her standing on her feet for the first time since they met. It surprised her to what she could do with all of her powers.

"Wow," she uttered, impressed. "You're…actually standing."

"Thank you for noticing," she praised her, and then saw her nephew with his bandages. "How'd he get like that?"

"I'm not sure, but my best guess is that he fought somebody for the first time as a martial arts master with his newly-developed techniques."

"I'll postpone the interrogation until he is well enough to attend. I don't like making decisions by myself on what to do with people that should get all the terrible things that come for them."

"I'll be sure to inform him when he wakes up."

"Thank you, Stacy."

As Suki left, Stacy returned to her lover's side and stroked the back of his head quietly as she yawned from the lack of sleep today.

I hope to put in a lemon scene between Shinji and Stacy later on, so, pretty please, keep reviewing my work. I liked it when Shinji beat Gendo down.


	10. Chapter 10

Creation began on 03-31-09

Creation ended on 04-20-09

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Indifferent One, Part Ten

A/N: Hopefully, this chapter will do justice to Rei and Shinji, with a little Misato thrown into the later areas. There's also the introduction of the new Second Child in here. Here goes…

Standing in front of Unit-01, a phantom-like Shinji frowned at the Eva, not for its existence, but for his mother's part in creating it. Ever since he could remember the day she was killed and absorbed by the monstrosity, he had lost any hope of forgiving Yui for leaving, and as much as he hated her for her sins, he had to be grateful that it was partially because of her that he met his aunt, Suki.

_You never even spoke of her,_ he thought, now levitating off the bridge and standing atop the Eva's horn. _Why you never did so, I can only guess is because you never really wanted to say anything about her…and because you don't like her as much as she lost her trust in you as a person. Maybe if you're ever to live again, outside this trashcan, you'll get an opportunity to reconcile with her. Maybe. But, still, you're also responsible for the Second Impact, if only by a small degree, and you left me alone with a guy that discarded me only to call me back to use me. If you're lucky, if there is a god on your side, you won't go to prison for a long time. And…maybe I can forgive you for your sins._

"Ugh!" A voice gasped, causing him to look back at the bridge…and spotted the girl that was originally injured when he first arrived to Tokyo-3, Rei Ayanami, looking at him.

Then, like a ghost, he just disappeared from sight, as though he were never there to begin with. Rei had seen him there, hovering above Unit-01's horn, but couldn't understand why. Or how so, since there was rarely such a thing as ghosts.

"Um, excuse me, can you help me?" A girl's voice called out to her, and she turned to face her, seeing somebody that was probably fourteen or so, but looked pretty much like a ten-year-old, due to her height. "I'm new around here."

She also looked like a cross between several different cultures: Her appearance seemed like a cross between Chinese and Korean, but also showed some Japanese and American in her heritage.

"Identify yourself, please," Rei requested of her.

"Ba-Do," the girl responded. "Tsukiko Ba-Do. Second Child and pilot of Evangelion Unit-02."

"Ayanami, Rei, First Child and pilot of Unit-00."

The girl, Tsukiko, then dropped to the floor and kowtowed to her. Rei had no idea why she would do such an act and asked, "Why are you doing that?"

"It's a sign of respect to your superiors in my family," she answered her as she got back up onto her feet. "My mothers always tell me to bow or kowtow to show respect to those that have done something longer than you have."

"Oh. Well, that's… Wait, your mothers?"

"I have two mothers, three aunts, seven uncles, two grandmothers and one grandfather. All of which are from different ethnicities that live in the same house back home in China. I've just shown up here and my grandfather's back at our temporary way station unpacking."

Rei was still confused at how a person can have two mothers that, from what this girl said, were still alive if being a qualified Eva pilot required that the mother be dead or gone.

"I'm confused by you having more than one mother," she told Tsukiko.

"Yeah, everyone gets confused when they hear of my family's background," Tsukiko responded. "I would explain, but then I wouldn't want to disturb people with the reason, so I won't explain, except saying that I have two mothers that I'm thankful to have with me."

"Oh, Rei," said Misato, as she showed up at the bridge. "I see you've met Tsukiko."

Tsukiko looked at her and said, "I told you you'd have to turn left before turning right to find your way here."

"They make the map like that to be used for a reason," Misato retorted, still unable to find her way around the GeoFront completely.

"Has my Eva arrived, ma'am?" She asked, bowing her head.

"Yes, it has. It's in the cage down the hall from this one."

"Shi-shi. I shall go see it."

As Tsukiko left, Rei followed her to see the Eva that was assigned to her. But when she arrived to the cage that contained it, she was quite surprised by the sight of it: While Unit-02 had, originally, been colored red prior to the disappearance of its original designer and her daughter, it was recolored black, as though to match its pilot's raven-black hair with a subtle streaks of silver. Beyond the coloring, the rest of the Eva remained pretty much the same with four eyes and everything. To see it a different color was just startling to the albino girl.

"Wasn't the Eva originally red?" Misato asked.

"Yes, originally," Tsukiko answered her. "But, for some reason, when the original designer disappeared, the painters were ordered to repaint the Eva black and silver. Said something about it no longer needing to red because of a girl with red hair no longer there. Her name was…Asuka. Asuka Langley Soryu. Don't know why the original designer up and left."

That had, originally, sparked Misato's curiosity, as well, when she heard about it happening. That Kyoko Soryu, the original designer of the Unit-02, for some reason, disappeared and took her daughter with her just a couple of months prior to its first contact experiment, and she hadn't been seen since. Not even her former husband had any clue as to where she had gone, even when questioned about the possibility of her leaving being sparked by his affair with his new wife.

"I mean, I hear about what NERV is supposed to stand for and everything, but now, I feel the need to question some of the things nobody talks about, like why did such a creature that attacked the city get called an Angel, but left before it could even cause collateral damage, and why, even when the city is still standing, people choose to leave it in favor of the rest of Japan?" Tsukiko asked. "It's like the city isn't a city…but a… Oh, I don't know, a panic room or something."

"A what room?" Misato asked.

"A panic room. A safe room? Castle keep from the medieval times? Didn't you ever watch the movie _Panic Room_?"

"I'm sorry, I haven't."

Rei, taking no part in the conversation, looked deeply at the black and silver Unit-02, seeing that, despite it being a production-modeled Eva and not the prototype or test-type-modeled Evas, there was something about it that seemed so…empty. Units-00 and 01 didn't seem so different from the feeling, but this Eva did, and it worried her.

"Why does this one seem so…empty?" She asked.

"There was no contact experiment or whatever it is that they do with it," Tsukiko explained the conditions of her assigned Eva. "But it functions just fine, due to its special features."

"Special features?" Misato asked.

"Sorry, that's classified. Even I don't know much of them, only that it has a five-language system setting: Japanese, German, Korean, Chinese, and English."

-

"…Unit-00 is now fully activated," said Maya, as she typed in some command codes to the repaired, orange Eva.

Rei, despite being calm, couldn't shake off why this Eva had bothered her in the past. It wasn't only because of the activation test prior to this one, but what had nearly happened several years ago when she was younger. Back then, she was nearly sentenced to death by Ritsuko Akagi's mother, Naoko Akagi, just for saying to her what the Commander had said about her being of no use, anymore. Instead of being strangled to death, she was just knocked out. Naoko had disappeared soon afterward, not even her body was found. All that she knew about her up to now was this straight sentence: She wasn't dead and she wouldn't forgive those that betrayed her.

"Rei, try to move the Eva's head a little," she was ordered by Ritsuko, and she carried it out, moving the head to the left, and then to the right.

_She never even questions her disappearance,_ she thought, referring to her daughter, whom she never really understood. _Where is she now? What has become of her?_

-

_I think the Angels won't come back after that scene with the Third Angel,_ thought Misato, as she returned to her apartment after her shift ended. _They don't show up after fifteen years, and then, when one of them does show up, and our only pilot at the time was injured, we needed that kid that couldn't care for the fate of the human race, and he left with his girlfriend when his father wanted him to pilot the Eva, and he barely had any memory of it…or so he claims. That forced us to have Rei pilot it again, and she got knocked over by the Angel before it decided to leave and not try to destroy anything like it did earlier that day. What a…_

_It's a good thing the Angel did leave, _she was cut off by somebody's voice, in her head as she stepped into her room. _They won't come back. Even if you had ten pilots or fifty Evangelions, they still wouldn't come back, and that's a good thing. That means nothing extremely bad…or planet-endangering will happen that is a result of their existence._

She suddenly recognized the voice, as it belonged to the guy that had left in the middle of the assault caused by the Angel: Shinji Ikari!

_I'm right behind you, but I'm not really here, _he told her as she turned to face him, and saw him, or an illusion of him, dressed in black and blue pajamas. _Why do you continue working for those fools?_

"To protect the human race, what else?" She told him, seeing that he was at least a few inches above the floor.

_Is that really your reason? Because if it is, then allow me to ask you a question I would've asked later on had I stayed and fought that Angel: "How many people have to die to save humanity?" I would've asked you that when I was made to kill a friend that doesn't live in this worthless city that would do nothing but attract the other Angels here…and I wouldn't have received an answer. The Evas…along with the people that put all their hopes into them…are fools if they think they'll save them from a catastrophe that people that know they are guilty of such pain are seeking out on purpose. Third Impact…or, as the fools that want it would say, the Instrumentality Project, wouldn't be pleasant or truly desired by people that simply wish to live away from the influence of the guilty…like how my parents are guilty for the wrongs they did._

"Your parents? What did they ever do that was wrong?"

_If I told you, they'd probably kill you for knowing. Not the people I'm with. The people you're with. And that bastard, Gendo. In a future that won't happen the way it was foretold, you would've died trying to get me to the Eva, and that would've meant the end of the world. You're not trying to start Third Impact, nor are you responsible for the Second Impact. Get outta NERV and get outta the city. Soon…something more important than a war with creatures you don't even understand will happen, and, in the end, only the innocent will be spared…while the guilty will be punished. And despite how much I really didn't think so highly of you, I don't want to see a lady that isn't guilty of so much as just dating a fool that nearly got his brother and old friends killed when he betrayed them, drinking too much alcohol that'd kill a person's liver while still alive, only to die later in a deteriorated state, and being an unknowing pawn in a bunch of madmen's sick goal. Go. There's no shame in running away._

Then, the boy disappeared from sight, leaving her alone with just the penguin, Pen-Pen, who had also seen the boy.

-

Opening his eyes, Shinji felt that he was asleep for a long while, and rose up to find his girlfriend asleep with her arms around him.

_Did I…make her worry too much? _He thought as he held his head with his left hand. _I…don't remember anything that happened after I came back from the cemetery._

"Shinji?" He heard Stacy's voice, as she awakened after he did.

"Hey, there," he greeted her.

She smiled at his conscious state and held him tighter.

"You're alright," she shed a few tears. "I worried about you. What happened when you were out there?"

With his memories of what happened out there returning, he explained that he met up with his father, and had to defend himself from him when he wanted him to return to Tokyo-3 to pilot the Eva that held his mother's soul in it. Gendo hadn't even put up much of a good fight, and lost to his martial arts that probably left him crippled.

"I…really, really, really hate that man," she told him. "He could've crippled you. He could've killed you in his attempt."

"I wasn't even expecting to see him. The only new feelings I have for him are with the feelings of hate and pity. I hate him for who he is and what he's done with his life…and I pity him because he'll never obtain me for an Eva pilot. If this were a game, which it never is…he'd lose it all."

Now looking into his eyes, Stacy had to confess most of her feelings to this man she had only met a while back, even when there was a possibility that he would reciprocate. She just needed him to know.

"Shinji, I… I may have never said this to you before…but I… I love you, Shinji…with everything that I am." She told him.

"I love you, too, Stacy…with all that I am." He reciprocated. "Ever since the day we met five years ago, I've felt happy feelings being with you. You…you complete the hole in my heart that had been further filled by others that actually care…even if it's in their own, indifferent way. I don't believe I could ever go any further in life without thinking about you."

-

The next morning, Misato had woken up from a nightmare that was a result of what she'd been told by the ghostly Shinji yesterday: People were dying in the city, at NERV HQ, the GeoFront being invaded by numerous soldiers from the JSSDF, orders of killing all personnel, armed or unarmed, and her boss getting away to do something horrible whilst she tried to protect the boy that had become so fragile from the abuse of the war with the Angels. In the end of the dream, she had been murdered by means of an explosion, reducing her to pieces. It frightened her to have dreamt that…and all she did was converse with a person that wasn't really there with her. The last thing she needed from her involvement with NERV was a death wish.

_Okay, _she thought as she got dressed for the day. _If what he said was true, then everybody's in trouble 'cause of those responsible for the problems that were caused by Second Impact. I'd best get outta here while I still can._

-

Kozo didn't mind the darkness, the fact that his favorite past student had a twin sister that was a free spirit…that detested those that were guilty of things in one way or another, that her nephew had sided with her, along with various other people that were against everything NERV and the Evangelions stood for, or that he was being detained against his will by a bunch of kids. But what he did mind was being watched by a young girl that had originally been the original candidate for Unit-02…along with her mother. It was the way they looked at him that spooked him. Their eyes masking a hatred that seemed to stem from their own unique past involvement with the Evas.

"You know how hard it is to deal with nightmares that are based on a future that was nearly played out?" Kyoko asked him. "It's terrible. If I had stayed in the Eva program, I would've wind up ripped away from my body and trapped in the Eva and leaving my daughter alone for most of her life, broken and traumatized by the fact that she had been neglected and nearly strangled to death by a soulless husk. But I guess you wouldn't know, being a guy and all. Are you sure you don't wanna tell us what we need to know so we can continue with our goal to restore order to the world?"

"I'm pretty sure I won't tell you anything," he told them.

"I think you will tell us what we wanna know," said the voice of Shinji, as he and the others had returned to begin the interrogation in order to find out more about the responsible ones that brought only pain and death to the world. "If you tell us what we need to know, there's a chance that you'll be granted salvation. We don't wish to see any version of Third Impact happen at all, whether or not mankind has reached the ends of its so-called evolutionary prowess."

Suki, still out of her wheelchair and walking about, carrying the case that she had Shinji and Stacy keep in their room, and showed him the contents inside.

"Do you have any idea what this is?" She asked him, receiving his widening eyes as a response. "I'm guessing that you do."

"It's the First Angel, Adam," he answered her, turning away from the embryonic Angel, "the only creature that was capable of instigating Second Impact."

"Only because a group of people had decided to try and bring about the end of the world," said Drake to him. "You messed with forces you weren't meant to understand. There was never a need to disturb things that shouldn't have been disturbed. Who wanted to mess with the Angels and decide humanity's destiny? That's what we want to know."

"You were around Gendo more than other people," Suki resumed. "You know the people responsible for destroying half the world fifteen years ago. Who are they?"

Fuyutsuki didn't say anything other than what he said about the Adam embryo. This irritated the Indifferent Ones to no end. And it made Suki question how much this man had changed since he got involved in the plot to start the Third Impact once all the other Angels had been removed from the situation.

"You…really won't tell us who's in charge of your organization, will you?" She asked him, getting only his silence. _Then you leave me no choice but to take the information from you, by means of telepathy._

She raised her left and set it on his head, as her eyes began to glow with psychedelic colors. Fuyutsuki felt his brain being invaded by a hand he had felt was so familiar, but lacked the soul of its owner. Every memory he had ever acquired in his life was accessible to Suki. All the thoughts, conversations and opinions he ever had on all the people he met couldn't be hidden from her.

…_married Yui Ikari for two reasons: Access to her groundbreaking theories…and to the patron supporting her work. …SEELE…the "Soul"… _She had discovered from his mind, and once she had read the rest of his brains, she released him from her grip, falling to her knees.

"So…they're called SEELE, huh?" She said as she got back up, with some assistance from her nephew and his lover. "SEELE… They caused the Second Impact to happen…by means of those that they manipulated."

"SEELE? That's "soul" in German, isn't it?" Stacy asked.

"Yeah," answered Shinji. "Just like how NERV means "nerve" in said language."

-

"Suki?" Shinji called out to his aunt, knocking on the door to her cabin, worried about her after the interrogation ended two hours ago. "It's me, Shinji. Can we talk?"

The door opened up and Suki came out, back in her wheelchair, looking a bit worn out. This sight made him worry about her further.

"Are you alright?" He asked her.

"Yeah, I'll be alright," she answered. "Telepathy just takes a lot outta me. More than what I really want it to, actually."

"Does that explain why you look worn out right now?"

"Yes. But don't worry. I'll be alright once I get some rest."

"Well, then, I won't keep you from resting. I just needed to know if you were alright. Goodnight."

"Sleep well."

-

Later in the night, Suki felt somebody using powers that were much higher in their intensity than anyone else that she's ever felt before. Getting up and sitting cross-legged on her bed, she noticed something in the shadows, right by her closet: A large, purple-colored, armored beast. It almost reminded her of the Eva her sister got stuck inside, but there was something about it that didn't feel like her sister. There was this strange aura around it that made it seem like it was still young, learning very slowly, but on the defensive. She got off and into her wheelchair to go over to the beast, slowly, and examine it up close. It had a horn that was about six inches long, a mane of dark had that grew from underneath the armor protecting the head, and dark eyes that almost reminded her of that bastard, Gendo, but they had a gentle feeling to them.

"Shinji?" She asked, and the creature nodded. _No way. His abilities never manifested anything like this._

Knock, knock, knock! Somebody was at her door.

"Suki? It's me, Stacy. There's something you should see out here." The person out there said.

The creature got behind her wheelchair and pushed her over to the door and opened it for her. When Suki wheeled out onto the grass, she was surprised by the sight of…another purple beast near the girl.

"I woke up and when I turned to see if Shinji was awake, this creature was right by the bed." Stacy explained, but was startled by the sight of the other beast that was behind Suki. "Okay, this is just odd."

"It would seem that Shinji's abilities have finally manifested," Suki told her.

"But…he's still asleep. How can they manifest when he's not even conscious?"

"I'm not sure, but his powers are off the scale. It's like he's here…but he's not aware."

"Sleep…walking," the beasts uttered. "Sleepwalking, Shinji is. Powers awaken in the darkness, they do."

"Okay, Yoda, oh, great one," said Stacy. "He's sleepwalking and using his abilities without being conscious about it."

"Here…and at that city that can't protect," they said.

"Tokyo-3?" Suki asked. "Wow, that's un-freaking-believable."

-

Staring at the Eva once more, Shinji, clad in purple and blue armor, holding a big right arm, frowned at the dangerous creature that brought only pain to the world…and would continue to bring only hate. He came back to end its existence, and the best way was to leave no salvageable piece of it…and undoing all of its bindings.

_You end tonight,_ his thoughts were broadcast out to whoever was around the GeoFront. _Prepare to be cut loose._

Raising the right arm up and rising off the umbilical bridge into the air, he unleashed massive, Eva-sized blades of energy, slicing the purple menace's head off, along with the arms and legs until the only thing holding it up was the cage system. Then, he lowered to the abdomen of the creature and released the waves to expose a large, red-colored orb, which also had to go.

_I may not have any feelings left for her, but she deserves to continue her natural existence, regardless of the crappy future. So let her go, you piece of crap! _Shinji thought, as he released the waves again, at the orb, cracking it until it spilled out a large flow of Lilith's blood…and an unconscious, twenty-ish, naked woman. _I hope you look back at this part of your life and recall the boy you left that allowed you to resume your existence as a person again and not as part of some crazy construct that you made that brings only pain. See you later._

Then, he was gone again, like a phantom in the night.

Sorry this one took longer than the last one. It's hard to come up with ideas. Please, review afterwards.


	11. Chapter 11

Creation began on 04-20-09

Creation ended on 05-06-09

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Indifferent One, Part Eleven

A/N: I bet you were wondering how Shinji was able to do what he was capable of doing with his powers, but he isn't, by any means, period, a hero. Now, with parts of the playing field set and certain wheels and gears set in motion, I intend to have more of the Eva characters play their parts. Let's do this, yo…

Waking up to the blinding light above her head, the confused Yui Ikari, seemingly inside a hospital room, stood up and looked around the place.

_Where…am I?_ She wondered, her head not so free of the aches that started several hours ago, when she awoke to the coldness of the bridge that held the remains of the Eva she was trapped in for over ten years. _Was…all of that from the other day…real?_

The door of the room opened up and in came Ritsuko. During her night shift with Maya, she had stumbled upon the mysteriously-destroyed remains of Unit-01…and the unconscious Yui, malnourished and freezing, dripping LCL. It was five hours later that she had been brought the medical ward of NERV and had recouped a little.

"Oh, you're awake," she said, switching from her tone of a scientist to that of a women with a degree in medicinal practice. "How are you feeling?"

"Terrible," she answered her, rubbing her eyes. "Where am I, please?"

"The medical ward of NERV. You've been here for over five hours." Ritsuko told her. _So this is the great Yui Ikari, the creator of the Evangelions, mysteriously brought back to life and everything. But what could've possibly destroyed Unit-01 like that? It'd been severed to bits…rather cleanly, almost. Clean as dandelions, perhaps. Nobody even saw or heard anything._

"Will I be able to leave once I'm well enough to?" Yui asked her.

"Yes. Right now, you're still a little malnourished, but other than that, you're quite fine in other areas," she told her. "Try to rest some more until a nurse brings in your breakfast."

Once she had finished her examination of Yui, she had left her alone.

-

"Excuse me, Suki," went Kyoko to the the leader of the Indifferent Ones, "have you seen Asuka this morning?"

"Yeah, she said she was going out to do something important, but she didn't say what or when. She left with Toji and Kensuke almost half an hour ago."

"I have a bad feeling about today. It's nearing closer, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is. But not too close."

"How many Indifferent Ones are there by now?"

"More than enough to ensure that no version of Third Impact can happen…and that the guilty cannot avoid judgment."

"SEELE and NERV. Taking out one will allow the other to be taken out right after, with little difficulty."

"I hope that second part is true, but I see a little trouble for myself in the future. Now that we know who they are, I can see that they know that I'm alive…and may plot something against me to get to Shinji and Stacy. I cannot let them get hurt by people that wish for something so terrible that they'll sacrifice everybody to obtain it…just like how I can't allow innocent people to be exploited like how NERV would've done to those that they can't have in their possession, anymore."

"But with Shinji's powers having manifested, there shouldn't be a problem with much of that."

"Except that they only act up while he's asleep. He has yet to unleash them while awake. He's been told about last night, as well, and is practicing on controlling it consciously now."

-

With Tokyo-3 getting more and more empty in population, the school had been reduced in its own population, and when Hikari came into the class, she was surprised to see less than twelve students left…and the teacher droning on about Second Impact. But she didn't let this get her down in the dumps. Today was a really important day for her. She was to see Toji for their date. It pleased her to be able to see him, even though it wasn't so much as she would want it to be.

_Now, it seems like everything's changing around the place,_ she thought as she did her work quietly. _The city seems safe, but at the same time…it just doesn't seem right. I wonder if my big sister can tell me why it's so._

When the school day ended, she waited out front of the building for her boyfriend, watching other students leave.

"…So my parents and I are leaving to somewhere else in about a week," she heard a girl say to her friends as they walked past her. "The city's just unpleasant to them."

"I'd have to agree," the other girl responded. "How could anybody even wanna raise a family here? A fortress city? Ha! More like a dystopia to me."

_A dystopia? Is that all that is?_ She thought as she sighed.

"Ma'am?" Somebody uttered to her left. "I got these for you."

She turned to see, and saw Toji, instead of wearing his usual jock clothes, he dressed up as a regular student, holding a bouquet of flowers.

"You're here," she smiled, accepting the bouquet from his hands. "How has your life been doing you?"

"Things have become complicated…but will be straightened out in due time. Enough about me. What of you, Class Rep?"

"It has become difficult. Every day, more or less of the city's leaving to places they feel are safer than this place."

"I don't blame them. Who'd wanna stay in a place that would attract danger that people didn't understand?"

"Nobody, probably. I thought that this city, originally, was a nice place to live in, but with people leaving outta fear and everything, I'm starting to see it a little differently. Like there's something here that was attracting the danger and it's still here."

"Come on. Let's walk down the street and we can discuss more on it."

Hand in hand, they left the school and traveled to the city.

-

"We live in dark times with very little light," said Pong to Asuka, as he drove her over to a building in the city that acted as a weapon holder for the Evas. "You sure about this, Asuka?"

"No, but I don't think they'll detect me at all. Angels have different patterns than those of humans…and I've been meaning to give my familiar a field run." She told him, and looked over at a dumpster.

She reduced it to atoms and rebuilt it as a bear-sized, armored beast that was as red as her hair and possessed large claws and webbed feet, like it was a cross between a bear and a duck wrapped in armor.

"Are you ready to begin, Yoshimi?" She asked the beast, which nodded in approval. "Kensuke said that the Geo-Front is directly beneath the city. If we stay in stealth, they shouldn't be able to see us. And we're not going there to cause trouble. We're just going to strike up friendly conversation."

"Okay," Pong gave in. "I'll circle the blocks until I hear from you later, and then I'll come back for you. Be careful down there. The Angels may no longer be a threat, but those Evas are still a danger if they really are just copies of Adam, with Unit-01 being the sole Eva copied from Lilith."

"Somehow, with Shinji being able to trigger his powers when he sleeps at night, I wouldn't be surprised if he was able to do something about that particular Eva that nobody else who's smart enough to deal with it would do. See you in a bit."

The girls disappeared down the shaft…and Pong rode off to circle a few blocks to wait for them.

_God, I hope they don't get hurt down there,_ he thought.

-

_Auntie…forgive me, but to be returned to you, I must serve these people that took me from you,_ thought a bitter Kaworu, as he stood in front of the black and silver Eva, intending to carry out SEELE's plan, even if it was against his will. _Unit-02, Adam's shadow…awaken and serve me…_

"What are you doing?" Somebody asked as they came onto the bridge.

Kaworu, with his concentration of the Eva undone, turned to face the person, and saw Rei, staring at him.

"I was…just admiring the Eva's paint job," he quickly lied to mask his actual intentions.

"Nobody's supposed to be in the cages. With Unit-01 un-salvageable, the remaining two Evas are under heavy security until the others are finally completed and tested."

"Sorry. I heard how it was destroyed. What do you think could've cut the Eva into pieces so cleanly?"

"I do not know."

They walked away from the cages and down the hall, where Kaworu noticed something about the girl: She was as pale as he was in skin tone, had red eye irises, and she seemed to be…a little less of herself and more like somebody else. SEELE had told him of Rei, that she contained the soul of Lilith, the progenitor of the human race, that she was, in a way, treasured by Gendo. But he, somehow, didn't believe that to be so. His aunt had always enforced in him that treasuring somebody and keeping somebody were completely different. Gendo Ikari didn't treasure this girl that had no past to look into…and, according to SEELE, no future.

"Ayanami-San," he spoke up, and she looked at him. "I… I mean, do you… Do you have any hobbies? Do you do anything for fun with your free time?"

Rei noticed that his expression was a bit timid, like that of a young infant of three or four years of age, and responded, "I look up at the sky, Nagisa-San."

"Um…just Kaworu is alright."

"Okay…Kaworu…I like to look up at the sky sometimes when I have nothing else to do."

"So…you've never played a videogame…watched a movie…gone to a festival before?"

"No."

"That's terrible. Everybody has surely done those at least once or twice. There's the New Life Festival that's going to happen in two days from now, and…I'm going to it. Are you?"

"No."

"Oh." Kaworu couldn't say that he was, by any other sense of the word, disappointed by her responses. "That's…too bad, then."

Despite how much SEELE had informed him of NERV, he expected to find certain people there that actually knew how to live a little…and not see people that only knew one aspect of life that was simply work. Elsa had shown him the pleasantries of living ever since he could remember the first festival that he ever went to, and despite how often he'd been forced to learn of people's inability to keep from harming each other through interaction, he was grateful that he lived in a world with them so long as he had people to care about. In his own view, a world where all human souls have been smashed together to create a new type of existence was just unpleasant…and undeserving for anybody…no matter how many people actually wanted it. The fate of destruction is not always the joy of rebirth. Destruction is comparable to death, and unexpected events are a different way of saying something of someone's fate. Was this how Adam felt when he was forced to start Second Impact? He felt that he had no choice but to try and escape his fate by endangering the lives of many people that didn't even know he existed or tried to hurt him? Was it because of them that his children hated humanity?

"I can't understand how people can just do such acts that have terrible consequences for those that try to do the right thing," he muttered, catching Rei's attention.

"Did you say something?" She asked, getting his attention again.

"Huh? Oh, um…no, miss. I said nothing." He lied. _And is what SEELE says also true? That this girl has the soul of the Second Angel, Lilith inside herself? That creature buried deep inside the building's basement?_

-

_To think that that woman is alive and has the Third Child with her,_ thought Gendo, having recovered from the beating Shinji inflicted on him in the cemetery, and sat by his desk, looking at whatever files he could find on his wife's sister, Suki, and to his discovery, the woman had very few interactions with people outside of dead people that kept whatever they knew or found out about her confidential and in the dark…taking the secrets to the grave with them when Second Impact happened. _And she has very little love for her sister after she had suggested that she have her abilities be studied. That's very…_

"Still aiming to start the Third Impact, sir?" Somebody asked.

He looked up and saw only darkness, with the minor exception of the Tree of Sephiroth (or better known as the Tree of Life).

"After wandering around the halls for God-knows-how many minutes, I actually find you, the jerk that thinks he can be God…simply because he views the rest of the world as expendable." The person said again. "This is just one of the many reasons why your son hates you. If he wanted to kill you with his lover watching and cheering, I'd simply pray that you die quickly. But he's not like that. Sure, he doesn't care much for the world or those that live in it, but he won't be held responsible for people dying twenty-four-seven. Those that are guilty are the only ones at fault, trying to force the fate of humanity on a bunch of children that have more than enough of a right to say what they think, regardless of the consequences."

The person stepped out of the shadows and was revealed to be Asuka herself. Taking a big gamble by entering the office of this fool, she had to let him know to a degree that everything he had hoped for was simply going to fulfill nothing but misery, and that people like her were going to prevent that. And to leave the message of revenge and payback.

"You might not have heard of me, but I was originally to be the Second Child of Unit-02 before my mother and I became aware of the disgraces of the immorality your people was causing. I'm Asuka. Asuka Soryu. I'm one of Shinji's unfeeling companions. Wow, I thought I was right…he looks nothing like you. You're all…insane and genocidal. You'd use people without hesitation, just like how you wanted to use Shinji…and me. To sacrifice people that would or wouldn't make waves that didn't suit your liking…that would or wouldn't ask so many questions…that looked for acknowledgement from those that wouldn't give it."

"State your business. What do you want?" Gendo asked her.

"Oh, just to tell you…and warn you…of the things you shouldn't try to do…and things you should try to do. Third Impact is impossible to achieve now that the Angels won't come. You can't continue to use those around you to suit your own sick goal. The city above us is nearly empty because the people know that it isn't safe to live in. What is the point of a safe city if what it is supposed to keep people safe from is constantly invaded by what we don't understand? It serves no purpose other than making it unsuitable for habitation. My people know who your people are and what they have done, and you will not be able to seek your way outta the long road of penance that you will take. And if you want to avoid having Shinji hate you any further, I suggest you try to spend time with him…if he'll let you, of course, which would be a miracle to both his aunt and himself. Finally, if you try to go after his woman to hurt him, you won't like what he'll do to you if he finds out." She told him. "NERV and SEELE…all of you that want to become free of this existence that we live…are all gonna suffer. Good day to you, sir."

As she turned to leave, Gendo opened a drawer in his desk and reached for his firearm.

"I wouldn't try that if I were you," she told him, but realized that men like him had edgy trigger fingers.

Before he could aim and fire at her back, the gun was dematerialized into atoms by her as she turned to face him, with glowing, psychedelic eyes.

"You try anything against us, you will not die, but you will lose a part of your body to death," she threatened him. "Watch your back from now on, Rokubungi."

She walked out of the room…and then vanished without a trace.

Gendo reached for his phone to call security and inform them of an intruder, and to shoot on sight.

-

"…So…there's still at least one Angel around here…and it must be dealt with before the world is truly safe?" Hikari asked Toji, as they sat by a lake, trying to enjoy the sunset.

"One Angel that's waiting patiently for what cannot be allowed to happen, and possibly another that's being manipulated to do somebody else's bidding. In a different version of the future, everything would've been erased from existence and replaced with an existence that killed individuality, eliminating the so-called Hedgehog's Dilemma that revolves around pain and interaction."

"Hedgehog? You mean that animal with the quills on its back that's also called a porcupine?" She asked him.

"Yeah. It's true that people can cause each other harm in the process of getting or trying to understand others, but we would've never gotten to where we are without doing so." He answered. "I've hurt you with our relationship, haven't I, Hikari?"

"A little, but I still care about you. You're as you've always been: Compassionate, understanding, and you enjoy my cooking."

"Well, you always add an extra ingredient to your concoctions," he said, drawing his head closer to hers.

"Which ingredient is it?" She questioned, bringing her head in closer.

"You already know the answer to that." He said, and then locked lips with her as she dropped her bouquet of flowers and held onto his shoulders. "Mmmm."

As the sun finally went down, they got up and he walked her home.

"You know, my father thinks very lowly of you," she told him.

"Really?" He asked back.

"Yeah. He thinks that you're just a guy with muscles and no brains. But I tell him that you are a guy with a brain, but who acts more with his heart than his head. He doesn't want me getting my heart broken over a boy I don't see much because of some people that aren't who they claim to be."

"I promised myself that I wouldn't be offended by such beliefs of others, and I'm not offended. But, please, believe me. Once this is all over, and those responsible are caught and punished for their acts, the future is free to be decided by those that deserve to choose how to live for themselves…and I'll choose to live as honest a life as I can with the people I love and started caring about eight years ago."

"I'll hold you to that…because I want to be with you until the day I draw my final breath and after."

"Hikari…"

"Toji…"

They kissed again, more deeply in their shared passion this time.

-

"Asuka, I don't know how you manage to get into this kinda trouble, girl!" Pong gasped, riding away from the city to avoid the authorities. "But thanks for evading death. You think they'll get the message of not to try anything stupid?"

"I hope they do," she told him, "otherwise, they'll just prove a point that those that fail to learn from their mistakes are forever doomed to repeat them."

Escaping to the highway, they passed a blue car that had the unnoticed Misato driving in it, trying to get as far away from the city as she could with her penguin.

_Huh? _She noticed the girl with the red hair. _Was that…Asuka?_

Deciding to investigate, she drove after the biker, but kept a distance to avoid being suspected of stalking or drive-by-ing.

_If that is her…then, it's been eight years since I last saw her. She just went missing with her mother after that affair she found out about her ex-husband having with another woman. She seems so different now, not just older…but probably… I don't know…better, maybe._

-

"Hey, Maya?" Ritsuko asked her protégé as they continued their work on the Magi's systems.

"Yes, Dr. Akagi?" She responded.

"Are you doing anything later tonight?"

"No, why?"

_Why is a good question to ask, _she thought as she was probably setting herself up for failure. "I was wondering if you wanted to go eat out somewhere with me."

Maya looked up at her, noting the subtle she had with Unit-01's destruction and the recovery of its original pilot, and almost thought that she was trying to pull a prank on her. It was a hidden fact that Maya had a thing for her superior ever since she started working at the Geo-Front, attracted to her beauty, her intelligence, her cool and collected personality, but was rather deluding herself with subtle fantasies instead of simply expressing her feelings to her.

"Sure," she responded. "I'd like that."

_She…really seems so innocent,_ Ritsuko thought, and her focus then shifted to the disabled Dummy System that wouldn't happen since they were down one Eva and only one of their pilots was actually part of the project. _Was I really going to trash that innocence with that untested method to advance the Evas' technology?_

Some time later, they were done with their shift and left the Geo-Front to the near-empty city above.

"Seems almost abandoned," Ritsuko sighed.

"Pretty much everybody's leaving to other parts of the country," Maya added. "Even when there hasn't been an Angel attack ever since the Third Angel came and then left. What could people possibly be afraid of?"

"It's human nature to be fearful of what's to come!" Somebody shouted toward them, and the moonlight shone over him.

"Hey, isn't that…" Maya said, but Ritsuko cut her off.

"It is," she went. "It's that kid that left when asked to pilot Unit-01."

"The name's Shinji, lady," said the man that appeared in front of them, wearing an unusual set of armor that seemed like it was made to resemble a lion or some other type of predator animal with claws, but lacking all the proper colors: First up, it was bluish-purple, not nearly as different from the coloring of the destroyed Unit-01, the armor's helmet was modeled after a wolf or something with curved, metal ears, the gauntlets were larger than his wrists and equipped with retractable blades that seemed like the edges of timber axes, and nearly no vulnerable location of flesh could be seen, all save his face. "The Evas are worthless. The Angels won't be coming back. And with Unit-01 destroyed, thanks to me, whatever outcome of the world anybody, human or Angel, had is completely undone. Those that didn't take part in the Second Impact should feel proud to know that they won't get killed by a creature that they don't understand completely, and those aiming for the Third Impact, but had no hand in the Second Impact, should flee as far away as they can from NERV and their employers of SEELE, for something serious, though not as serious like the world nearly coming to an end, shall arrive in due time…and only the innocent will be spared."

"You mean, you're responsible for Unit-01's dismemberment and the recovery of its original pilot, Yui Ikari, your mother?" Ritsuko questioned.

"Yes, and for obvious reasons: Yui, or Mom, has to see the repercussions of her actions performed over ten years ago, that Eva was an abomination that served only to bring an end to existence, and what I was bound to hear if I had stayed in this heartless city, that I had protected that which should be protected, is so ugly and deformed. Things I have to protect? Let me tell you ladies something: The things I have to protect…are not the same as the things I want to protect. I still got one other little chore to perform before my people make an attempt to shut you all down for good, and once that has been done, order shall be restored. So I bid you good evening and enjoy yourselves while you still can…and get away from NERV and outta this city while you're still able to. The guilty will be punished."

Then, they gasped as he disappeared in the blink of an eye, just like a phantom, startling them.

"I…I…I…" Maya said.

"I… I think we should probably do what he suggested," Ritsuko uttered, finally letting her sense of morality take control. "Get as far away from the city as we possibly can."

"I agree with that," Maya said, and they ran off to their respective apartments to pack up quickly and flee into the night.

-

_Yeah, that oughta do it, _thought Shinji, as he hovered above the city as he saw the women running home. _Who knows, they might eventually find some romance with each other. Eh-heh-heh… But later. Now, onto more important concerns._

He then sunk into the ground and entered the Geo-Front, having eventually gained some more conscious control over his power over the course of the day after it was revealed that they reflexively react when he's asleep, and his subtle dreams were actually memories of what he'd done while asleep, or 'sleep-hating' as Suki put it. Using his intangibility and invisibility, he entered NERV HQ without being seen and headed to his destination being the lowest levels of the whole location: Terminal Dogma, prison to the Angel known as Lilith.

Sorry to leave you here, but I must await more reviews for a time. But just wait and see. I intend to have something happen before I have Shinji do what must be done to ensure an apocalypse cannot be made into a reality. Peace out!


	12. Chapter 12

Creation began on 04-25-09

Creation ended on 05-06-09

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Indifferent One, Part Twelve

A/N: A past story of how Shinji Ikari and Stacy Kennedy met and stayed together as, in the beginning, an unfeeling and uncaring item. Sorry, but I have no honest clue as to when the future lemon will arise…but it'll come, I assure you. Onward to the past…

Five years ago:

"Attention, class, we have a new student joining us today," the elderly teacher says to the students as they were sitting around. "She's just transferred in from a school in Nevada somewhere. Please, make her feel welcome."

The door slid open and the girl came in, sporting dark curls in her long hair and a very pale complexion with dark eyes. Her Japanese uniform attire seemed somewhat off because she had replaced the white shirt piece with a black and red shirt and tied a few blue ribbons around the waist to substitute the rest of the dress' original belt piece. While it looked like she could turn many heads for a nine-year-old girl, some of the children just looked at her and could tell that there was something wrong with her, instantly, except for the nine-year-old Shinji, who didn't even bother to care about whether or not they had a new student.

"Please, state your name to the class," the teacher told her.

"Stacy," she told them. "Stacy Kennedy."

The teacher pointed her to her desk, right next to Shinji's, which was set by the window that he was looking out of. She went over and sat down, doing the same thing as he was. The class went on until it was time for P.E., and some of the students left to do their thing. Shinji sat by himself as his male classmates ogled the girls in their swimwear, until, by choice of action, he got up and walked onto the empty track field and got a better view of the girls…and her, who seemed to be looking at him. His and Stacy's expressions were of a misty night, stripped of all emotion and left with an empty-but-directed gaze. The other kids took their attention away from each other and at their respective pair. The boys couldn't help but admit that the new girl was very attractive, like some kind of angel, but couldn't help but also notice that she took an odd interest in Shinji. It seemed that nobody had yet to inform her of his attitude toward life and death, that around fours or five years of age, he went from a sobbing, miserable crybaby…right to an uncaring person that lived in solitude, without a single friend because of his inability to care for others whether they lived long or didn't.

_What do they know? _He thought as she probably noticed that he wasn't ogling her like the other boys were. _If they wanna blame somebody, they can blame that man that left me alone after she died. And those other people, getting on my case with my outlook on life. You only have one life, and when it's gone, it's gone. It's pointless to ask if you care whether you'll live or die._

When the school day ended and the kids were walking home, Shinji had left to the local store, attempting to try and steal a piece of fruit. It had been two weeks since the incident in which he found a bike lying around in a gutter, and had been accused of stealing when it was never true, and was punished for spitting in a cop's face when he was accused. The store owner, familiar with him and his behavior, always hoped that he would change and stop trying to steal from his store whenever he came in, and had yet to obtain security cameras and such devices to get good descriptions of any that tried such stunts. But Shinji hadn't any interest in changing, and tried to steal again, this time going for some candy, but got caught by the elderly man's hands.

"Got ya!" He grunted. "Put the candy down!"

"Make me, old man!" He responded, catching somebody's attention.

"You are such a troubled, misunderstood boy," said the unwavering voice of Stacy, as she was in the store, too, and had seen what happened.

As though he were influenced by her, he set the candy bar down and the old man let him go.

"Now, please, leave," he told him, and Shinji did so, but not without kicking him in the right shin to injure him. "Ow! Ow! Son of a…"

He ran out, followed by the girl, and was too far for the guy to even try to get him.

"Stupid head," he grunted, but then noticed that the girl had been following him around, and turned to face her. "What are you following me for?!"

"You left something back at the store," she told him.

"I left nothing back there, and thanks to you, I didn't get anything from that old buffoon that'll probably die a year from now."

Then, Stacy held out a candy bar that was identical to the one he'd been persuaded to put down.

"And I didn't put any money down on this," she informed him, smirking.

"You mean, you stole it?" He asked her, not surprised by this, and she tossed it over to him. "Just who are you, anyway?"

"I'm Stacy Kennedy, the new girl in school." She told him. "And you are?"

"Shinji Ikari, the guy that could care very less about dying today or living to see another day and the people around me." He told her.

"I'm glad to make your acquaintance, Mr. Ikari."

"Please. Being called in terms of formality disgusts me. I refuse to be compared to my worthless father, Gendo Ikari. It's either, always, "Shinji", "kid", "loser" or "sociopath", as I'm still young, inexperienced with the way of the world, hate the world and its society, don't care if I live or die."

"Not caring if you live or die, huh? And not caring of your father? You remind me of how I had a falling out with my own old man, that bastard."

Shinji's frown softened a little as she called her own father a bastard. It seemed just like his nonexistent relationship with his father the day he was dumped off at his uncle and aunt's. Ever since the so-called "death" of his mother, his father simply walked out of raising him to deal with his own problems, and not even once or twice did he try to get to see him or even talk to him. It didn't even pain Shinji to become heartless toward his relatives, going as far as to tell them whether they lived or died made no difference to him so long as he never caused any deaths himself, refusing to end someone's life rather than let it end on its own time. If people wanted to become murderers and other varieties of psychos, then let them leave him out of it all, for as much of an isolated and unfeeling individual he was growing up into, he was no bad seed.

"Well, good-bye," Stacy told him, turning to walk away.

"Hold on a moment," Shinji stopped her. "What do you do when alone?"

"I do nothing but read novels, my homework, eat takeout food whenever I don't cook, and stir clear of jerks, buffoons, parents that are never there when you used to need them before you realized that they're very worthless when they don't bring you up, and praying for some personal release from existence." She told him.

"What of your mother?"

"She died a long time ago. I don't care much for that. What's the point of thinking about dead people? They probably don't care about you when they go to the afterlife. Whether you care or not is nothing that'll change anything for the better, so there's no point in caring about her so-called soul that supposedly watches over you."

"Heh. Ain't that the truth? I lost my mother, too, and I don't think much of her, either. She's pretty much half of the reasons my father walked out on me, the jerk."

"Looks like we have much than I expected us to have in common, and I like the way you express your dislike of blood ties."

"They can go to Hell for all I care. You die today, end of story. You live today…you live to see another day. Nobody lives forever."

"Yeah. Nobody does live forever. Would you want to?"

"No way! Live forever in this world or any other world? There's no peace. No order, balance, tranquility or other such fragments of harmony."

"No shit."

As they conversed, they walked down the street, catching the attention of most people that knew of Shinji's behavior, and they thought that he was changing his ways…only to see that the girl was like him. Shinji, going against the rules set for him by his aunt and uncle, chose not to go home to them again, wanting to converse as much as possible with this girl in front of him. And maybe even break a few laws with her.

"Well, later tonight, I'm going to try something that is completely uncalled for, but I wanna do it, anyway," she told him. "Care to come with?"

"Sure." He complied.

They had stopped in front of an apartment building that Stacy had walked inside of it, with Shinji following her.

"You live here? By yourself?" He questioned.

"More or less. I told you, I had a falling out with my father. We're estranged. Our relationship was really on good terms, anyhow. He could be banging a model for all I care. Though I hope he catches something that'll kill him faster than a case of cancer."

"Ha-ha! I hope mine catches a cold that he can't recover from, the scum."

-

"You ready?" Shinji asked Stacy, in front of a little toy store in the city.

"No, but I'm going to do it, anyway," she responded, as they were hiding behind a car. "Let's cause some mayhem."

They both held a pair of bricks and got out in front of the car. Stacy tossed her bricks at the windows and shattered them, setting off the alarms!

"Whoo-hoo!" She cheered. "Your turn!"

Shinji took one of his bricks and smashed another of the windows…and used the other brick to smash the window out of a car.

"Let's run while we can!" He said, and they ran away from the damage just seconds before a police car came and saw the backs of their heads as they turned a corner.

"I can't believe we did that!" Stacy chuckled. "That was wild! You think anybody's gonna know?"

"After this? They'd trace the damage to me, since I could care less about the laws of this society. You ever read of Second Impact? Hardly any rules to follow when people were assaulted by other people. At first, I didn't care much about it, but then I was abandoned and took to looking it up. While I don't believe much of how it was caused, I agree that the end result was immense devastation. People died, homes were taken, dreams shattered. I could care very less about the economy and business of adults, but the ecosystem of various animals had been devastated by the impact, removing rare animals that we'll never see in the wild, ever again: Tigers, bears, seals, whales. The pleasantries of existence taken by cruelty. True art, beauty, all gone."

They got back to her apartment and sat on her bare couch. Her place had very few furniture and looked as bare as…well, as bare as flesh on a hot day, just like how Japan had become after the removal of the other seasons. As lame as it was, Stacy put up with it…until she could 'acquire' some pleasantries from places she could get for 'free'.

"Why put money down when theft is careful planning and free?" She asked him.

"And if you don't get caught, then you won't get caught," he agreed, and looked at her clock and saw that it was way past midnight. _The Hell with them. It's not like they'd even miss me if I came back. They're only watching me 'cause that jerk won't…and they've done nothing short of making any attempts to try and reach out to me in that way that would actually do me some difference._

"Is it okay for you to go back on your own?" Stacy asked him.

"Oh? Umm…do you…want me to go?"

Getting up, he walked toward the door, but Stacy grabbed his arms.

"No," she told him. "I…I don't want you to go. You…you make things less complicated and more wonderful. And…I had a good time today, not just my first school day, but everything, thanks to you."

At first, Shinji paid attention only to her words, but found the way she mirrored his so-called flaws and solitary behavior (and her beauty, which he became mesmerized with, but to a lesser degree than her personality). He couldn't deny what his heart was reacting to, even though he lacked or ignored the proper traits to express any hints of hormones getting active and taking control.

"Say…was tonight a…you know?" He asked.

"I…I don't know. Was it a…you know to you?" She responded.

"It felt weird for a first. It seemed like any other day, except I never thought I'd meet another person that could less for living or dying."

"There are…some things I wish to care for, but not in the way that most would probably assume. There may be a time where I actually do care if I live or die, wish to spend my final hours with the people that want me for me…not looking to exploit me or anything. That's one of the reasons why my relationship with my father is deteriorated: He was doing a project that he wanted me to be part of, some type of personality transference or something that copies a person's behavior onto a computer or program. I asked why, he told me it wasn't for me to know, so I looked into his research when he wasn't looking and found out why: Most people above the age of eighteen suffered several weeks of brain damage after failed attempts to copy their personalities, and it had been suggested by him to use people below the ages of eighteen and fifteen. He suggested using me after my mother died. I told him I wouldn't help him, that if he wanted to use people, he shouldn't start with his relatives. He accused me of being stubborn, I accused him of being insane…and then I threatened him with my running away if he tried to make me help him in his project…and you know what happened?"

Shinji nodded in the negative.

"He was gonna try, anyway, and so I ran away from home…only to end up being taken back a month later after living on the streets. The law took his side that I was rebelling against doing my chores. I chose to say nothing more to the authorities or even a therapist that had been suggested. I didn't trust people, anymore, and I didn't wanna be around my father much of the time. In fact, I stayed as far from him and home as possible. He never really loved me…and I had no love left for him. He was temptation in all the wrong ways…and I refused to bend for him."

Shinji could see a tear escape her left eye as she confessed all to him.

"What happened to your mother?" He asked.

"She just died," she answered. "I was only six or seven at the time. Don't really know if she got sick or if it was an accident, but she died and that was that. How'd yours die?"

"I'm not really sure. I mean, I still recall bits of the last day I saw her, but most of it is hazy and such. I think she was running some other project she wanted me to see. I could recall some sorta giant or a man that was ugly, the scent of oil and sounds of electrical systems, and then an alarm going off, water or flowing out…and then…nothing. My father, days later, dumps me off at my worthless relatives. People like that aren't worth waiting for acknowledgment or approval."

"I acknowledge you," Stacy told him. "I…approve of you."

He looked at her once more and said, "The same goes for me to you."

Looking into each other's eyes, they saw some fragment of what was mostly missing from their lives: The companionship of another person that really cared about what happens later to people that sought something special that wasn't physical. It was emotional, psychological…and fulfilling.

_Does she…really approve of me?_ Shinji thought, as he unintentionally closed the gap between the two.

_I…I feel drawn to him more than I ever did to anybody,_ thought Stacy, as she felt something warm touch her lips, but felt a cold, stinging sensation extend to her spine, and she reached out with her arms and caressed his shoulders.

_People say that those that don't care for much are drawn to each other,_ they both thought as Stacy was under Shinji as the kiss continued. _That can't be so accurate… People that don't care for anything or anyone shouldn't be able to care for…for this kinda thing. But…but I really… I really want this. I want him/her…_

By the time they came to their senses, it was already nearing the sunrise of the next day, and they had only obtained a few short hours of rest. They had fallen asleep during the ends of the kiss, which, as much as it prevented them from achieving anything else, made them want to question their future, if any came, together. Stacy had woken up first, followed by Shinji.

"Good morning," she greeted, although, seemingly, sadly.

"Good morning," he replied, sounding the same way as she. "Stacy, I… About last night…"

"No, please," she stopped him from saying anything else. "I was okay with it. I actually liked it…just as much as I like you."

"I like you, too, but I don't think you should be in any relationship with me. People will say things about you."

"Let them say things about me. Let them say that I probably threw my heart away when my father threw me outta his life, or I was banished to my mother's country when America had no place for a person like me…or…that I wanted to be with you because we're alike, that we both don't care if we live or die, that we don't think about who stays and who goes, that we'll probably never say the things that I probably wanna say someday. Maybe never, ever say, but for now…please, Shinji, let me stay with you. Only you."

Shinji, although physically unmoved on the outside, was internally affected by her feelings for him, and as much as he felt a need to express his for her aside from his approval of her, all he could do was hold her in his arms and say, "Everybody else is not in the picture that I see is us, Stacy."

She shed a new tear and held onto him.

-

A few short years came and went until they had both turned fourteen years of age, and nothing and no one had been able to separate them from each other. Whenever they got caught causing destruction to private and public property, stealing from stores, or just disobeying the curfew laws, the authorities found themselves at an odd with Shinji, who refused to leave Stacy alone. "You people are calling Death if you think I'll leave her alone with you. Kiss my ass!" He had told them once in his twelfth year of life. They had no choice but to allow Stacy to go free each time he was set free, as though nothing was ever going to separate the two. They were like Romeo and Juliet's dark incarnations, devoid of much morality for others…and no respect for their superiors or elders. It had also gone to the point where everybody just knew them as Shinji and Stacy, not even bothering to recall the girl's last name, as it became lost in memories that were lost in time.

During their current year, Shinji had received a letter from the last person that he never wanted to think about: His father, along with an irritating photograph of a purple-haired woman that appeared to be in her late twenties, with the words, "To Shinji: I'm going to pick you up, so, please, wait for me! P.S. Note the cleavage!" written on it, with some lipstick added as the 'cleavage' saying was accompanied by an arrow pointing to the woman's rack. His aunt and uncle empty-heartedly suggested he go see his father, but he only agreed to do so if Stacy could go with him. And like she had chosen to do everything else with him, she would help him take on his old man who deserved so much as a kick in the ass for being such a pain in same place. This was going to be some crazy reunion that ends badly.

Please, note that when the rainy day/bike scene was written, they didn't exactly say how old he was when he found that bike in volume three, so I got creative there.


	13. Chapter 13

Creation began on 05-06-09

Creation ended on 05-14-09

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Indifferent One, Part Thirteen

A/N: I hope y'all enjoyed the origin story with my Stacy character meeting Shinji and ending up as a special companion of his. I wanted the story to be emotional but also, in some small way, impassive. Now, we go back to the present, which will lead us into the future.

Gendo, looking up at Lilith, still aiming to his goal of Third Impact, even when his wife had been returned to him, was with a large frown. Everything he had planned was becoming undone by these people that have become such a pest, and it infuriated him that his own son was with them. And he had an aunt that wasn't heard of until later this year when he and his impassive girlfriend left in the midst of an invasion that ended with Sachiel leaving without so much as trying to destroy them, anymore, and all because he wouldn't pilot the destroyed Unit-01, which was the only real Eva that had a soul in its core after its contact experiment.

Lilith, conscious yet immobile, looked down upon him as scum, like so many of the others that were her children that wanted to bring about the end of humanity, praying for someone to come and relieve her of being used as a pawn. Anything to free her from her forced fate, even death itself would be all right as long as she didn't have to be used by her bad children, anymore. As patient as she had been…for countless years since she had been discovered by these people, the wish for her own salvation was equal to the salvation of mankind's need to maintain its individuality instead of being united as one single soul. It didn't need to evolve any further to shape the world, but only those that failed to learn from history refused to listen.

_Even if the original reason I agreed to go along with the old men's plans has been brought back, I still aim to have it all,_ thought Gendo, still desiring Third Impact despite Yui being brought back.

"I guess it's true about what they say about old men," said somebody as Gendo looked up at the shadowed ceiling. "When you continue to do such wrongs, your innocence is forever taken away from you. You're a real piece of work, Gendo, and I despise how you continue to try, and constantly fail, to bring about the end of humanity."

It was Shinji, wrapped in his armor, hovering above him and the Angel that longed for salvation.

_Suki said to act out as best a move as I could, since she and Drake couldn't see enough of what is to happen into the future this time, and I intend to remove the other problem from this pit of an HQ and from a man who thinks he's God._

Now close to the ground, Shinji stared at his father and noticed the faded bruises from their fight in the cemetery still had a ways to go before being gone.

"What are you doing here?" Gendo asked him.

"You've lost it all, old man," he told him, floating across the floor around them. "Once this Angel, Lilith, the mother of the human race, has been dealt with, the people that wish to survive in this world without being ruled by the fear the ones that abuse their power on shall shape the destiny of us all… Except you and everyone else that sought to bring this world to its end."

"You've become an abomination, Third Child, and your maternal aunt is no different."

"Oh, enough with the 'Third Child' thing. I'm not the Third Child and I'm not the Last Child. I'm me, not you, not Yui, not even this SEELE bunch that finance your little useless operation here called NERV. I've never piloted an Evangelion…and I saw to it that I never have to. I destroyed Unit-01 and set its captive free, ensuring that it can never function ever again, and since it was the only Eva that had a soul, that made all other Evas useless to begin with. I even know more about the future that would've happen had I chose to stay here, like how you would've allowed people that I would've cared for to die or otherwise suffer, how you would've sent that girl I wouldn't replace as a pilot to her death…just to break me more than you thought you could've. Being a major jackass and a real bastard may be your idea of a stable living, but I'm not cool with it. I'm done with you, I wash your hands of you and Mother, and now…to free another captive."

He rose back up into the air and looked at Lilith's restrained arms and legless stumps, the result of being stripped of the lower body half and regenerating slowly, a tortured prisoner of the few that didn't deserve the salvation they wanted. Then, he shot like a bullet and destroyed the nail on the right and then the one on the left, removing the injured Angel from the cross, falling into the lake of LCL, the blood of Lilith.

Gendo, once Shinji had reformed in the air, took out a gun and fired at him, watching several bullets bounce off his face and ricochet elsewhere. Even direct hit to his face didn't leave so much as a scratch on him.

"That little toy won't kill me…because I'm not really here," Shinji told him. "This is my astral form, like how astral projection is viewed in the movies, cartoons and comic books, except this is very real. You can't harm me, but I can harm you."

And then he proved it to be true, by sending a wave of energy at his hands, cutting the skin and causing him to drop the weapon. He couldn't feel his fingers, anymore.

"Urgh!" He groaned, and was then kicked by his son onto the floor. "You…you can't possibly be human."

"Oh, I am human… I'm just special, like the others that show their potential in different ways. The few and overlooked that'll do the right thing to obtain what they desire. You and Yui, you're not special…you're not overlooked…you're both failures, both at living and at parenthood." He then turned to face Lilith, whom rose from the lake, taking some of her blood to regenerate her missing limbs, with the mask of seven eyes falling off to reveal not a pair of normal eyes, but five eyes, each one in a clockwise position with a small mouth in the center. "Come now, Lilith, I shall take you to a safe place, where, hopefully, you can rest until my people can find out how to deal with you properly."

Then, in a large flash of light, the boy and the Angel disappeared from Terminal Dogma, leaving the injured Gendo to swear vengeance upon Shinji, even if it meant death to his son.

-

"Wow, so, this is the mother of mankind," said Kimiko Suzuhara as she, her mother and the other few Indifferent Ones, minus Asuka, Toji, Kensuke and the others that left to Tokyo-3 to cripple more of NERV's plans, saw Shinji's astral body return to their hideaway with the Angel that was a prisoner. "She's huge!"

Lilith, before her arrival here, had been reduced in size to a more-manageable size, and now was the size of the cabins that they all lived in. Looking over at the woman that was in the wheelchair, she almost assumed that it was the woman that had created that biomechanical with her flesh, only to wind up stuck inside it, but realized that she wasn't Yui, for she was cooler and more tame than the other woman.

"So what do we do with her now?" Ursa Aida asked, concerned with the possibility that NERV or somebody could track her here, despite the fact that their location was similar to being off the grid, so no one could, even if they tried.

"We got both her and Adam," Kyoko said, "but as long as they stay separated, there won't be a problem, right?"

"Lilith, before any of us even existed on Earth, had usurped Adam for the planet, and as a result, had things gone the way the future had been foreseen, we would've faced our end. But Lilith isn't looking trouble. Are you looking for trouble, Lilith?" Suki asked the Angel.

Lilith, due to her ability to understand humans, nodded her head in the negative, and then uttered, in an eerie, whisper-like tone, "Just allow me my freedom, and I shall leave this planet, without my heart, which had been taken from me by the man that made the girl in the image of his wife with my flesh."

"What?!" Stacy gasped. "Somebody took your heart from you and placed it in somebody else's body? That's just foul."

"Rei Ayanami," Shinji and Suki both said at the same time.

"She's Lilith's heart," Suki then said by herself.

"I shall go back for her," Shinji told them.

"No, leave it alone for now," Suki told him. "We shouldn't go after a girl that may show that she is her own person and not somebody's doll to be manipulated soon. We'll wait a few days and see what'll happen. Is Adam still hidden away, Shinji?"

"Yes. Adam is safe from discovery." He answered her. "Though, I don't think we should allow Lilith to depart without her heart. People used to say that it's a heavy burden, but those that, literally, don't have their hearts shouldn't be without them."

"I may have to consult with my special contact at the twelfth hideaway."

"You mean that woman that used to work for NERV's predecessor, but immediately ran for her life after realizing that she was being used?" Ursa asked her.

"Mm-hmm. She's the only other person aside from Kensuke, who has yet to fully master his skills as a hacker of cyberspace, that can access large computer systems like the primary one that controls NERV HQ in Tokyo-3. And nothing would ease her wounded heart better than getting closure and justice from a man that is worthless at commitment."

-

The next day, Rei, waking up to the hollowness of her dingy apartment, felt a jolt of pain in her heart, and realized that something else had changed: Lilith had been taken.

_They defy his goal,_ she thought, referring to Gendo, whom she was now starting to think less and less about with each following day.

As she got dressed to go outside, she wondered what else was to change the future that was being made by these people that weren't affiliated with any other organization on the planet, and just how far they were willing to go to stop NERV…and how far Shinji was willing to go with them.

At the same time, at NERV HQ, Kaworu had discovered that his task was no longer capable of being carried out. Lilith had been taken, rendering his assigned duty nullified, and that probably that SEELE no longer had any use for him, which would mean…

_I may have to go against the old men,_ he thought as he finished reading an old book that his aunt had given him prior to his being taken. _It's hard to find a home in a world that is cruel and cold, especially when it's controlled by people that want something terrible to happen._

Setting the book aside, he took out one of his few other momentoes he had from his life before he was referred to as Tabris by SEELE constantly, and one them that held great value was a locket that had been a pocket watch owned by his father…and given to him by his aunt the day before he was taken. There were often times where he would think terrible things about the abuse he received from his doctors the old men paid to perform their experiments on combining Adam's DNA with his own, of how he had desired to end them to end his internal suffering, but then he'd look at the picture within the watch and find that, no matter how much abuse he was put through, he only had to go through it enough until they let him go, that his aunt was still alive, and waiting for him to come back home where they can resume their solitary-yet-quiet-and-peaceful life when they were never bothered. He longed for that life again. The life he lived now was no life; it was a prison, with only a few positive points that made it a little pleasant: SEELE wasn't watching him much of the time, allowing him his privacy. There were no more needles or forced medication, which brought a slight smile to his face. And there was Rei, somebody almost similar to what he himself had become, except that she had no proper origins like he did. He was natural and artificial at the same time, while she was just artificial…and confined, caged. A puppet, just taking orders without question… or any indication of true free will. Then again, he was also in the same boat as her, but where they differed were, as follows: He had something to cherish, someone to protect, and Rei had nothing to live for…or did she?

Deciding to find out for himself, he got out his room and left to see her, needing to ask her if she had something or someone to protect.

-

Ring, ring, ring!! Ring, ring, ring!! The phone rung until an aged-yet-slender hand picked it up.

"Hello?" An electronically-distorted voice asked.

"Suki calling," the other end's voice replied, "the promised day approaches. More of the future that almost was has been undone."

"The first two Angels?" The voice asked.

"Adam is being confined at our location, and we have Lilith secured, but she cannot leave without her heart, which, unknown to us all, had been left back in that pit of a city called Tokyo-3."

A mouth, using a voice changer, smiles and then says, in a regular lady's voice, "How can I be of service to the Indifferent Ones?"

"We need to find out whatever more we can about the girl you knocked out years before went off the grid. Is it possible to hack the Magi with assistance from a person who has almost mastered his abilities?"

"In theory, it's possible. I can be there in three days if I leave now."

"Then, we'll see you in three days. Be careful."

Setting the voice changer aside, the lady got up out of her chair. Over the last few short years, she had aged a bit as a result of her bitterness and resentment of what the man she had a brief affair with betrayed her. He broke her heart, and now she wanted to break his, but not by taking his possessions from him. It was her brief interaction with the mysterious twin of Yui Ikari had taught her that revenge can consume the very soul of a person…unless it's taken through the proper channels to avoid the fear of being tainted forever. She had experienced a taste of that the day she nearly killed the little girl that revealed what he called whenever she wasn't around, and found that, even though she seemed to be nothing more than a thing that looked like the former scientist, she couldn't bring herself to kill the girl, and so she simply knocked her out and made her escape from the Geo-Front, leaving it all behind: Her successful Magi, her daughter of whom she didn't have a very strong relationship with to begin with, and the fact that, had she done so with her attempted murder move, she'd committed suicide, afterward.

Noako Akagi, former member of NERV's predecessor, GEHIRN, with the darker streaks of age getting to her, got set to leave the underground haven that was beneath the former location that was once the great and marvelous New York City. She never expected that the Indifferent Ones would make an off-grid spot that was situated in the former Big Apple, or anybody, for that matter, to make a place of salvation when over a thousand lives perished here.

_And after reading of how the national birthrate had been decreasing as a result of Second Impact…only to be steadily returning to normal now,_ she thought, referring to how bad the recent generations had been desired for the goal of restoring life to the dead lands of Earth. _I had no hand in the Second Impact. I was only requested to join for my work in creating the Magi. I have no blood on my hands…I have no blood on my hands._

-

Deciding that she couldn't stand being in bed, anymore, Yui got up and walked out of the medical ward, wanting to see how much of the world had changed since her…well, her 'absence'. Borrowing some clothes that fit her loosely, she wandered around the building until she found a way out into a garden, seeing a pair of teens with pale skin tones, hair tones, and red eyes, conversing about something. Deciding to eavesdrop, she hid behind a bush and listened in on them.

"…So, basically, you were his puppet," said the boy to the girl. "And after paying more attention to a recent dream, in which you met somebody that looked like you, only older and without your color features, you're…actually happy about everything that has happened in the last few weeks?"

"I'm sorry if you feel disgusted by this all, but that is how I feel," the girl responded. "And as much as I should probably hate the boy, Shinji Ikari, for not piloting the destroyed Unit-01, I am glad that he didn't. That Angel could've destroyed us all, but it chose not to and left, and then, later on, nothing else of any danger came, and all because a kid that didn't care about the fate of the human race chose not to get involved."

Yui's face frowned sadly. Being gone for so many years had a negative impact on her son's mentality and such. She couldn't blame him for his attitude, really, since part of his recent choices were, indirectly, her fault, entirely. Even before the day of the contact experiment, she had instructed Gendo to look after Shinji if anything happened to her, and found that he couldn't even do such a basic job and responsibility as taking care of his own child, which would've explained the rest of his flaws.

_And all my friends said that if I had any kids with him, they'd turn out like he is,_ she thought, but was bitter about it, knowing that her son wasn't like Gendo, having chose to avoid a fight rather than get involved. _He's nothing like him. He doesn't even have any positive feelings for him…just like how Suki lost any all positive feelings of me._

"So, tell me about your aunt," the girl said to the boy. "What is she like?"

"She's my best friend. The only person I can actually trust. The only person I might ever actually trust since I don't have any friends. My caretakers, before they sent me here, didn't allow me the luxury of friends, that if nobody served a specific purpose, they were discarded. Not even a pet."

Yui watched as the girl held the boy's hand in hers.

"Why were you picked?" She asked him.

"It had something to do with the day I was born, which was the same day half the whole world went away forever. I ended up learning things I wish I hadn't been required to know. But since the Angel that was beneath us all is no longer here, everything that I learned probably doesn't matter." He answered.

"But…if you don't do what SEELE asks you to do, they might not let you go be with your aunt again."

"My sole instructions were to take whichever Eva that had a dormant soul inside and go merge with what I thought was Adam or Lilith… But neither is here, anymore, so that gives me no purpose. They'll probably kill me, either way, so what choice do I have?"

_SEELE?_ Yui gasped. She knew her superiors were determined to stop the Angels, but to have blackmailed a kid? That was simply a little…too much.

-

"Oops! Sorry about that," Noako apologized to a woman she had knocked over.

"It's okay," she responded, removing her bang away from her left eye and picking up her travel bag. "I was in a hurry, anyway."

"Where to?"

"Tokyo-3."

"Why there? Many people are leaving it."

"I'm not transferring there. I'm heading there because my nephew, whom I had to part with over seven years ago, is there, and I'm taking him home."

The lady handed her a picture of her nephew, which was seven years out of date, but the only picture she had left of him that she took with her before she left her home.

"He's pretty handsome for a kid over seven," Noako told the lady. "What's his name?"

"Kaworu. Kaworu Nagisa. I'm Elsa Nagisa."

"Oh? Well, I wish you the best of luck when you see him again."

Noako, along with another woman, one with brownish-ebony hair and a tiny mole on the left of her face over her eyebrow, left the woman alone as they walked away.

"Sounds like you made a friend," the other woman said to her.

"Except I don't know her, and I was honest when I said I wished her luck in finding her nephew." Noako told her.

"Whatever. Let's get to our destination and put an end to this order of chaos that swept us in its tyranny. The sooner it's over and done with, the better off some of us will be."

"Ms. Subaru, despite trying to care for others to a degree, you still sound like you don't care about anybody, not even yourself."

"I can't help that. My mother died and my father left me for dead when our home was destroyed."

"Why did you join again, anyway?"

"To ensure that the children of the future will not suffer as I did when I lost my mother to the military that killed her, and I swear unto that goal with my uncaring soul if my name isn't Lana Subaru."

-

Waking up to what felt like a complete hangover, Misato, recalling that she followed the biker and passenger for a while, prior to be jumped by some sort of creature and knocked out, noticed that she was tied to a chair and illuminated only by a small lantern. Her only company was the very girl she was suspicious of when she saw her that night she decided to snoop: Asuka, older and not so child-like, anymore.

"Misato," she said.

"Asuka," the purple-haired woman responded. "It really is you."

"In the flesh. You were out cold for at least three days. Well, two days, actually, when you were knocked out on the first day when you wouldn't stop following me. I kept watch over you until you woke up, and now that you have, I must be strict when I play 'Twenty Questions'. Why were you following me? Did NERV order you to play the role of a tracker and seek out the former Second Child before Unit-02 even had a contact experiment that would've cost my mother her soul?"

"No, I was already leaving Tokyo-3 after some convincing from a man that was pretty serious about never wanting to pilot the Eva when he was first brought to the city. I just packed up and rode on outta there. That's when I saw you on that bike with that biker. I was curious and decided to follow you."

"That's a really dumb move, even for you, Misato. But then again, it's better than what you probably did at NERV…or what you were going to do had the Angels came the moment Shinji got into the Eva: Having children play soldiers that go to Hell and back inside giant copies of the First Angel, Unit-01 being a former copy of Lilith, the Second Angel, and getting injured or killed until only Hell promised freedom from the pain of living. How empty do you suspect the city to be?"

"Probably a ghost town by now, Asuka."

"That's good, then. That means that, in due time, something good will happen, and when it does, the future of all humanity will be guaranteed upon by my people. The innocent shall be spared…while the guilty will be punished for their crimes against humanity." Asuka then got up and left the small room they were in. "I'll make sure somebody brings you something to eat. It's better for now that you stay here. It'll take a while to even see if you can be trusted to walk around here freely. Kaji and Fuyutsuki certainly aren't trustworthy to even have their bonds removed so they can use the bathroom."

"What?! Kaji and Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki are here?!" Misato asked, but received no answer, for Asuka was already gone. _Who are these people? What are they trying to do?_

To all the Eva fiction writers and readers, I shall require your reviews and opinions for the next chapter of this story. It has to involve a degree of what becomes of Yui and Gendo, Kaworu and Rei, Maya and Ritsuko, Kaji and Fuyutsuki. And should Kaworu and his aunt, Elsa, have a bond of immense strength that allows her to find him when she enters Tokyo-3? Should Yui seek a divorce from Gendo as a starting path of personal redemption on her goal to forgiveness from the people that hate her? Should Kaji and Fuyutsuki have another confrontation with Maboroshi and Suki, respectively? And should should Ritsuko and Maya 'get it on' if you know what I mean? I shall await for reviews and see where they take this story's next chapter. Traitor of All Traitors, signing out!


	14. Chapter 14

Creation began on 05-14-09

Creation ended on 06-02-09

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Indifferent One, Part Fourteen

A/N: After getting at least one new review, I'm going to hold out a little on what will be intended for a bit, wanting to put in a new character that, like Gendo, is a failure at being a parent, and has a grudge against their child. I'm still waiting for other reviews because, of all my Eva fics, this one is my promising in the lines of being heard.

"Okay," said Noako Akagi to Suki, as she and Kensuke had managed to successfully hack the Magi and acquire whatever there was about Rei Ayanami that was buried deeply in it. "Here's what we found out that we didn't know of: Apparently, she's some sort of hybrid between the Angel known as Lilith and your sister, Yui, genetically-engineered by Gendo to…help him carry out his own version of Third Impact, with which he required her, Adam, Lilith and Unit-01…and definitely carries Lilith's heart inside herself."

"Whoa, a hybrid," Kensuke oohed, his indifferent familiar surrounding his upper body, looking like a giant, brain-like construct with cable-like tentacles that ended in hands the size of school desks, its inside giving him access to a keyboard-like device and screen. "It's so sci-fi. If only such a method of life were being used for a proper purpose instead of one that can't be achieved, anymore."

"There are a lotta things that many wish were being put to a better use," Suki added, recalling that today was one of those days where she'd have one of the Indifferent Ones' oldest members donate a substantial sum to charity that would go to those in need, such as orphans and people that couldn't make enough to feed their families. _Of course it'd be Sarin. He's our sole alchemist and an important part of our financial system. Yami has also been great to the donations that we give to needy people. Children everywhere enjoy his cooking._

Grrrrrr! Her stomach growled, signifying that she needed to eat again, despite having had lunch already.

"I'll go see if Yami can whip up another plate for you," Kensuke told her as his familiar dematerialized and left to go get the chef.

"Once again, my compliments to Mr. Kaiyo," Noako sighed, having enjoyed her lunch with the others.

Suddenly, Suki's eyes flared! She saw things that had yet to happen! There was a man, his heart rotting with unhealthy desires, following…Stacy. There was Gendo, raising a gun to…her sister's face! Skies filled with thunderclouds and rain fallowing onto the streets of Tokyo-3, and the bodies of a boy and a woman in front of the girl that they had found out more on, as tears were streaming out of her eyes.

"Oh!!" She gasped, and then quickly passed out in front of her.

"Suki?" Noako uttered, shaking her to wake her up. "Suki!"

-

Walking around the near-empty city of Tokyo-3, Yui had wondered how such a place seemed so big…but very soulless. Hearing that many people had started leaving after the Third Angel had shown up, only to leave after the Eva was deployed against it and was subsequently defeated by said Angel, more people were happier to be away from the place than to actually live in it, even if it was built to withstand Angel attacks. Somehow, deep down, she suspected that people knew that it was actually luring Angels to it rather than repelling them, and wanted to spare their families and friends great heartache.

_Maybe that's why people are leaving,_ she thought as she sat near a bus stop to catch her breath.

A biker passed her, but then stopped and pulled back.

-

Pong, keeping a closet, tighter watch on the city's activities, thought he saw a ghost that didn't belong when he saw the woman that resembled Suki, not bound to a wheelchair and looking a few years younger.

"Excuse me, ma'am," he got her attention, "but are you, by any chance, a member of the Ikari family?"

"Um, yes?"

"You… No. You can't possibly be related to Suki Ikari, right?"

"If Suki looks anything like me, then, yes. That would make her my sister."

"Ha… Ah-ha-ha-ha! No! You're my stepbrother and friends' savior's twin sister?! Whoa, you look so much more capable of harming people than the government and military can."

Yui felt that this boy was looking down upon her.

"I'm Pong. You?"

"Yui."

"I heard from your sister of how you two split up. That was really messed up on what you suggested she do. Why do you look so depressed? Has being declared dead for over ten years made you bitter?"

"It ain't like that. Wait. How do you know Suki?"

"I'm one of her friends. I owe the lady my life after she saved me from getting killed. She's an idol of salvation, using her abilities to prevent what your people have been aiming to do for over a decade. If you want some advice to avoid much tragedy, I suggest you get away from this place as soon as possible. There's no peace here. It's only a giant deathtrap that stinks of NERV. Adios, wise-woman that ain't so wise now." Pong then rode off, hoping that his conversation with his savior's twin would put in her some ideas to get away from the city…and her lousy excuse of a husband. "The guilty will be punished!!"

-

"This place," said Elsa, looking around the apartment she was just renting out until she found her nephew and took him home. "I don't see how anyone could have a life here. Tiny villages have more…happiness than a city. I miss home."

With a lease of three weeks, that gave her twenty-one days to find her nephew and leave. The sooner she found him and left, the better. Grabbing her windbreaker coat, she set out to go find him, armed with only out of date picture of Kaworu.

-

"Aah…" Suki groaned, coming to in her room. "What hit me?"

Looking around, she saw her nephew and his girlfriend on the left side of her bed, asleep. A smile got on her face again, not from the fact that they were waiting for her to wake up, but from the fact that the two were actually a couple. Maybe unfeeling for most people around them, but a couple, all the same. The outside of her window showed the night sky, indicating that she'd been unconscious since this afternoon after her intense vision of the future. Grabbing a pair of crutches, she got out of bed and walked out of her cabin to sit by the lake.

_That man that was following Stacy__…who was he…or who is he? _She wondered as she gazed up at the artificial moonlight.

"I'm glad you're awake," went her associate, Cujo, as he showed up behind her and sat down. "You gave us all quite a scare."

"Sorry. I saw into the future again, and it stinks."

"What was seen that my familiar has yet to show me herself?"

"A man tailing Stacy, my sister's no-good husband pointing a pistol at her face, and this woman and a boy lying dead in front of Ms. Ayanami."

"Whoa. And I was getting worked up over my familiar losing that third hump."

"Well, you know camels have either one or two humps. It's probably an degeneration of its physical shape to suit its continued maturation."

"Should Stacy be informed about the possibility of a man we don't know anything about that may follow her around?"

"Yeah, just to be on the safe side."

-

Sleep eluded Kaworu, for he felt a strange presence on the outside of the Geo-Front. It was familiar to him, but it was also something he hadn't felt…in over seven years now. Getting out of bed and getting dressed, he walked out of his quarters and down the hall. There was no night security around most of the time, since many people had left Tokyo-3, so nobody suspected much of an invasion. Kaworu wanted to think that that was stupid, since the so-called fortress city was still a type of fortress, and like in most old stories, fortresses were meant to hide and protect things that were considered top priority. But he knew better, since there was nothing here to protect…except some remaining Evas that didn't even have souls. Unit-00 and 02 were practically worthless.

_This feeling,_ he thought, now outside of NERV HQ, _where's it originating from?_

It wasn't until much later, when he had, because he viewed it as a necessity, used his Angel power of telekinesis to levitate upward to the streets of Tokyo-3, that he saw the city much differently at night…and how much more hollow it felt to him.

"I really don't like this place," he told himself. "I miss home."

"You and me both, sir," he heard somebody behind him, and he turned around. "This place really sucks, and it sucks big time."

It was a woman, and she was deathly familiar to him. Almost as though she were a ghost, like the old and friendly ghost, Casper.

"Who…who are you?" He asked her.

"Elsa," she answered. "Elsa Nagisa. Do you think you can help me find somebody here? A boy. His name's Kaworu Nagisa."

"I'm Kaworu Nagisa."

"My nephew?!"

"My aunt?!"

They both stared at each other for several seconds before doing what came naturally to them: They embraced!

"But…how'd you find me?" He asked her.

"Actually, it was you that found me," she told him. "Wow, look at you. How've you been?"

"For the last few weeks or the last seven years?"

"The last seven years."

"I've really missed you. I don't like my caretakers at all or my past assignment."

"Let's sit down somewhere and you can tell me everything that has happened. I got a right mind to take you home after all of this is over."

-

"Ikari," said SEELE leader, Kiel to the other members. "We may have to end our association with him. The scenario is long gone, both Adam and Lilith are no longer in our possession, Unit-01 is lost, though its original pilot has been brought back, and the remaining Evas that were completed are useless since they don't have souls."

"He'll be dealt with in due time, but for now, we must move on to this other flaw in the grand scheme, not just him. What news of the world?" The seventh member asked.

"An anonymous donation was made to the survivors of Second Impact again," the eighth member revealed. "The UN is checking to see who is responsible, but, apparently, nobody is taking responsibility for this act. Someone sent forty-million to starving children. Only the initials "I.O." was found."

"Who would send that much to needy people, and not use it to serve a better purpose, such as the construction of the Eva Series, which started last month ago as a precaution?" The third member asked.

"Obviously, somebody that is either suspicious of what is wrong with the world, or just wants to see people get by alright." The ninth member answered.

"Beyond that news, Tokyo-3 is almost totally empty, all save the NERV members…and a woman that is visiting the place for a few days." The second member revealed. "There's also a man that's interested in helping in the construction of the Eva Series, but requires something from us."

"Who'd want to assist in the construction of the Eva Series when we have all the help we need?" Kiel asked.

"He says he can manufacture the new Dummy Plug system, but requests the acquirement of his estranged daughter."

"Bring him in."

A door to the dark room opened, and a man stepped in, sporting a jagged scar under his left eye…as well as a permanent frown on his face. He stood in front of the monoliths and waited to speak his peace.

"State your name," Kiel said.

"Doctor Kennedy," he revealed.

"What could you possibly have to offer the new Dummy Plug system?"

"Perfect obedience. Surely, as you can see, child candidates can only offer so much, as they're unpredictable, unruly, and almost uncontrollable. I've been experimenting in mind control for several years now, and have managed to perfect the process of turning imitations of people into expendable puppets. I probably would've completed my research a lot quicker, had it not been for a little obstacle that wouldn't bend for me."

"We'll look into it. For now, what is it that you require?"

"Just a silent assassin that specializes in espionage and retrieval. There's somebody I need to have back in my possession, except they won't come back to me of their own free will."

"And just who is this person…personally?"

"My rebellious daughter, Stacy Kennedy."

-

"Gaaaahh!" Stacy gasped, waking up and out of breath. _It was…just a dream…_

Her most recent nightmare washer father, the very family member she had left alive that she despised, trying to reconcile with her, only to try and kidnap her when she told him that she didn't need him, anymore. Of course, even in dreams, she couldn't trust her old man with her life, and would rather see him die by some means that weren't caused by her. Roy Kennedy, Stacy Kennedy's father, also the little brother of the late May Kennedy that died years ago. There were often times now that she wondered if her father ever even really loved her as a child before the death of her mother. If he didn't, then, that put him on the same boat as Shinji's father: Both were complete failures at fatherhood because they chose to be.

_Forget him, Stacy, he's dead to you, anyway._ She thought as she got out of her chair and stretched her limbs. _You don't need him, you never did need him._

Shinji woke up and saw her flexing, chuckling quietly to himself.

"How are you this day?" He asked her.

"I'm feeling great," she answered him.

"Any good dreams?"

"Nope. You?"

"I wish I did have a few, but all I really had were ones revolving around that purple abomination I destroyed."

"Wow."

There you have it, people! Things are going to get a little darker as the days go by. I also need to get set for a birthday that happens on the first Friday of June. Please, send some more reviews.


	15. Chapter 15

Creation began on 06-02-09

Creation ended on 06-30-09

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Indifferent One, Part Fifteen

_I can't believe those guys did such a thing to you, Kaworu!_ Elsa thought, having recently invited her nephew to her place to rest until the new day came, bitter at what the people that wanted custody of him had done to him again…and because she wanted to know what had happened and what nearly happened. _I let them take you from me only to have them turn you into a tool? That's messed up and worthy of the death sentence._

Kaworu, whom was asleep on sofa, woke up to the smell of coffee. Getting up, he stumbled into the kitchen and met his aunt as she sat at the table, drinking some coffee.

"Good morning," she greeted kindly to him.

"Good morning," he responded back.

"Breakfast?"

"Yeah, sure." He sat at the table with her and started eating some eggs and pancakes. "The pancakes taste different. Did you add a new ingredient?"

"Yes. Only some drops of vinniger to replace the salt that made it bitter."

"It's really good, Auntie."

"Thank you, Kaworu."

-

Being warned of the possibility of being followed by somebody didn't almost put a frown on Stacy's face as she walked around the neighborhood streets, heading to a small gift shop to find a good gift to Toji's sister for her birthday. Some bits of several newspapers caught her eye, each reading on what was to become of Tokyo-3 since more and more people were leaving it.

_They shouldn't have bombed Tokyo-2, then they'd probably have nothing to worry much about,_ she thought as she stopped at a florist shop. _Since I don't know her well enough, I'll get her a bouquet of flowers and card._

After getting her gift to the little girl, she left to return back to the haven, always looking behind herself to make sure she wasn't being followed. She past a pair of police officers while showing her hollow expression that she always gave to the rest of the world. If somebody died, she wouldn't care about it.

"Was that her?" She heard one of them say.

"Yeah, she fits the description," the other guy responded. "Hey, lady, hold it!"

Looking behind to see that the cops were now coming to her, she saw one of them take out a pair of cuffs, and she ran off before she could be apprehended.

_I haven't even shattered anything or caused any collateral damage! _She thought as she ran across the street on a red light to evade the police. _Then again, Shinji told me that his father had the law looking for me, so I guess I didn't need to do anything wrong to be chased after by the boys in blue, the disgraces of existence._

Running into an alley, she summoned her catfish-like, fiend familiar, whom she dubbed "May" in honor of her paternal aunt she never knew, and rode on out of the alley in her own unique style, and so fast that she was just a blur to the world.

-

"How you feeling?" Shinji asked Suki, noticing that she seemed so absentminded lately today.

"I'm doing a little better," she told him, closing her book that told her more of the future that once was instead of the future that would be unless steps were taken to avoid it. "I thought you were going to go out there with Stacy to find gifts for Toji's sister."

"Oh, I had to stay behind to clean up our cabin. I'm going to meet up with her in a few minutes, but I had to make sure you were alright."

"Don't worry. I'll be fine for now. I'm still as in good as I was when we first met. I'm not going anywhere yet." She assured him. _Which is much as I can say for those that will be punished._

"Okay, then, I shall see you later." He said, and then ran off to meet up with his lover.

Left to herself, Suki looked back into her book and observed the old future of her nephew, how he'd become emotionally broken because of Gendo's actions on him.

_Crazy bastard,_ she thought, flipping through the pages every now and then to review each passage of time. _As much as a fool can pray that he'll change, there's no shred of redemption for him or anybody that chose the path that shouldn't have been taken._

Shifting the pages to the new future that could be manipulated like the old future, she saw things that she had thought were undone: The Eva Series, which shouldn't have been made at all now, were attacking Tokyo-3, some people that lived there that were trying to escape nearly crushed to death by falling debris, and the Angels, which should've left after Sachiel realized that her nephew wasn't inside the former Unit-01, were there, but it did not look like it was to pick up where they left off. The rest of the pages were foggy, showing no other glimpses of the future other than what she already knew.

_I thought the future had become clearer, _she had thought quietly. _Something or someone has done of already did something that has manipulated the present to a degree…_

"…You've been zoning out a lot more than usual, Suki," said the girl, Kimiko "Mari" Suzuhara, to the founder. "Are you okay?"

"Huh?!" She went, looking down at the little lady. "Oh. I'm fine."

"You sure?"

Thinking about it for a moment, Suki then decided, "I guess I should go rest a bit longer. Thank you for being concerned, Mari."

-

"What happened to you?" Shinji asked Stacy, finding her at the park, lying on a bench around some bushes.

"Cops," she sighed. "And I didn't do anything wrong… Well, at least not today or ever since our involvement with Suki and the Indifferent Ones. I bet it really was your father that had something to do with this."

"It probably was, since he did say that you were gonna be sought after by the cops. Why, I don't really know, but it might have something to do with your aunt, May."

"I refuse to be looked down upon just because my late aunt was completely abnormal and cut off from society by people that had their flaws and refused to see them for what they were."

"Nor should you be looked down by them. Most people don't even know who you are, anymore, except all of us back home."

"You guys are the only ones that actually know me. Everyone else only knows of me, like how people don't know that bastard, Gendo, but know of him."

"Come on. Let's get outta here and back home as soon as possible. If the authorities are looking for you, they'll only get an ass full of scratched flesh and no young lady that already has my heart."

She got off the bench and hugged him. And then, they walked off, periodically looking around themselves for any signs of the cops. Unaware that they were being followed by somebody.

-

After wandering around the Geo-Front and Tokyo-3, Yui had come to terms with a choice she was considering, and that was to leave Gendo. He was clearly not the same man she had met years ago. He had become a complete stranger to her and there was nothing and no one else here of value that she cared about.

_If I ever do see Shinji again, I will do whatever it takes to earn his forgiveness._ She thought, feeling tremendous guilt for how her son had turned out in her absence.

Waiting for the train that led away from the city, she wondered if she was being followed by anybody, and saw somebody in a black suit approaching her.

_Oh, dear,_ she thought, trying to keep her composure steady.

The man stopped by her and said, "Are you leaving the city, as well?"

She nodded that she was.

"Everybody's leaving it. Or at least everybody that's not associated with NERV, that is. I just feel a great swell of pity to those kids that can't leave. War is never a place for the young to be involved in. Don't you agree so?"

She nodded again.

"You have any kids?"

"I had a son, but we lost touch," she said, telling only half the truth.

"Let me guess: Your job cost him a mother?" He asked.

"Yeah. It cost him a mother…and it cost me his loss. You got any kids?"

"I wish I had some, but my wife died in the aftermath of Second Impact. I was only nineteen when I got married, but I loved my wife so much."

"Any brothers and sisters?"

"Had a sister, but we lost touch before the catastrophe ever took place. You see, I had tried to convince her to allow her subtle, telekinetic ability to be studied, but she accused me of being a monster and not taking in how she'd feel about such a suggestion. The next day before I could even apologize for what I said, I find out she was a victim of a hit-and-run at a local supermarket and died of a gunshot wound to her heart. Ever since that day, I've kept wishing to see her spirit and let her know that I was sorry for what I did to her."

This guy reminded Yui so much of her own damaged relationship with her sister, with the only exception being that Suki was still alive and up to something.

DING, DING!!! The sound of the train got their attention and they got up from their seats.

"I'm Yui," she told the man, "and you are?"

"Fubuki. Fubuki Yutani. Just a guy trying to find solace in the last years of his life."

The train stopped and they stepped inside.

-

"Oh…aaaurgh…wha…" Shinji groaned, as he came to in a dark room, tied to a folding chair, surrounded by large monoliths. "I should've known that this was going to happen."

As he had seen the monoliths of the SEELE organization, his lover had come to in a different location, tied to a gurney surrounded by various, surgical-looking tools.

"Hey!" She yelled. "What's the big idea?! I'm not even sick!"

"I'm guessing the years we spent separated after the death of your mother has done to little to your temper," she heard a voice that she had grown to hate. "It's been a while Stacy."

Turning her head to the source of the voice, she glared at the site of her father, Roy Kennedy, disgusted with his presence. Recalling how they had gotten captured by a guy that was following them around constantly, they couldn't go back to the haven and risk exposing the others and having them get caught in the possible crossfire of their own actions. So they had to avoid returning until they had either lost the guy or worse. But Stacy didn't believe that this would be part of the worse-case scenario when Shinji and she had to avoid the haven.

"Who…the Hell…are you?" She asked him.

"Oh, surely, you can remember your father, Stacy," Roy told her, picking up a surgical took that looked like a slingshot made of stainless steel. "How've you been these last few years?"

"That's none of your damn business, old man. Untie me."

"Oh, I don't think so. You see, I need you strapped down for my tests for the Dummy Plug system I promised SEELE."

Stacy's eyes frowned at the guy.

_If they've done something to Shinji, I'll cripple them, starting with you._ She thought, her father setting the device down in favor of a classic syringe.

"You know, you seem to take a little bit after her," he told her. "Your aunt, I mean. What was it about that boy you were with that you liked? Was it his hands or his nose? His lips, even?"

"I'd like to see you dead or in jail," she told him, avoiding his question of her relationship with Shinji.

"You can't ignore me forever, girl. Time to begin my tests. Now, this will hurt a bit."

Trying to summon her familiar to defend, Stacy couldn't on account of being tied, part of her mind still out of it, and because she hadn't fully-mastered her abilities as an Indifferent One yet.

_I'm gonna make you pay for this, _she swore, _even if it takes me an eternity._

As her father stuck her right wrist with the needle, Shinji was engaged in a conversation with the SEELE monoliths, whom were most anxious to meet him.

"Are you Shinji Ikari?" The first monolith asked him.

"Who wants to know?" He asked back. "Depending on who wants to know, that name can be my birth name…or my slave name. To people that want me for me, it's the former, and to those undeserving of my existence, it's the latter. Are you the ones called SEELE?"

Nobody of the SEELE monoliths spoke another word until Kiel spoke up again.

"You were assigned to NERV HQ as the Third Child, pilot of Evangelion Unit-01…and you left before you could perform your job against the Angel that attacked the city known as Tokyo-3," he stated. "Why did you leave when you had a job to do?"

"I honestly don't know what the Hell you're talking about," he defended. "Grown men fight giant monsters. Military fights giant monsters. Superheroes fight giant monsters. I'm none of those. I'm just a simple, fourteen-year-old outcast of society that's been out of school for over two months, was originally called for by a jackass I have no sympathy for to be his pawn, but refused in favor of avoiding conflict and causing deaths, which I wouldn't be able to do had I remained in that city of the dead. I found a better calling when I was visited by a special organization that has a better purpose to exist rather than work at NERV, which is under the group known as SEELE."

"Do you honestly believe that fate can be averted?" The members asked him.

"Anything is possible if you try to achieve the goal for the right reasons, and a fate where innocent people are sacrificed for the guilty to see their bloody goals realized isn't right. And if you are SEELE, then in due time, you and NERV will be put down. You will lose everything. You've already lost things which were never yours to begin with." He told them.

"Consider this, Ikari: Side with us and share your Intel. We're familiar with your type of people. You're a smart man, and smart man like money." Kiel told him. "Think about it. You could have it all."

_These people must be very old,_ thought Shinji, wondering where Stacy could be and if she was okay. _Why would I want money when nearly everything I could possibly want or need was right where I was? I have Stacy, the only woman there'll ever be for me, Suki, probably the only adult in the family that really does care about me as a person, and the other Indifferent Ones I've met so far… All of whom are people that want the same thing as a group: The world to be spared an inevitable end._

-

"Mommy, something is wrong," said Mari to her mother, as the nighttime came. "Shinji and Stacy haven't come back yet.

In their cabin, Kasumi Suzahara, as she was putting the finishing touches on her daughter's cake, got the same feeling.

"Is your brother here?" She asked her.

"Yeah, he's out by the lake."

"Go get him for me, please."

Mari then left outside to get Toji. He was standing by the lake with Mr. Cujo and his newly-remade camel familiar that permitted him the ability to see into the future. His facial expression had been changed from a simple, happy look to a look of contorted anger.

"Big brother?" She asked him. He looked over at her and sighed.

"We got a big problem," he revealed. "Shinji and Stacy were kidnapped and being interrogated and tortured, respectively…by some men that want something that's now impossible to obtain: The end of the world that we all know."

Mari gasped, realizing that this was now more important than her birthday, which she was putting on hold until everyone she knew was present. Whoever these people were that kidnapped the young couple were some of the very things she didn't like about people: Cruel and immoral.

-

Suki, having heard that her nephew and his lover were in the hands of an enemy, went to have a confrontation with Fuyutsuki on what they would possibly do before she made a decision concerning them, and was willing to leave the older man a cripple if he refused to answer her questions.

"SEELE," she started, "what are they most likely to do to those that know what they're doing or are unwilling to help them?"

Fuyutsuki looked her in the eye and answered, "You already know what they'll do. To those that know the truth, they'll silence if they tell the world. To those that won't help them, they'll also silence if they can't be bribed or negotiated with. They're not above murder when persuasions fail to convince the ones they're trying to keep quiet or don't see things their way."

Suki frowned, unable to imagine what those old men would do to her nephew and Stacy. Foul enough that when the future had changed, her ability to peer into the future presented her with a nephew she didn't know she had, but it was too foul that she, as a person that might've turned her back on the people she didn't understand or care much for, unless it was in her own, unique way, was unable to think of not standing aside and waiting for the future to present her with the possibility that two people she did care about were to be used and killed by people that wanted the world to end so that they could save it. Having regained some of the will to stand on her own legs again, she uttered, "If they're not above murder like they're not above manipulation, then it'll be a good thing that they'll be below blood of the innocent that they themselves killed when Second Impact happened. You stay here to ponder the choices you've made in life when faced with the choice that you had to make to avoid your end. It'll probably be the only time a man that used to have honor and morals like you did do the right thing." And then she left him alone, getting ready for a dark future ahead. One where she would be making it up as she decided to save her family.

It's been a while since I added more to this series. It's the last day of June 2009, and I felt the drive to complete this chapter. I love the Indifferent Ones. I hope some you do, too. I hope to get the rest of it all made in due time in July. Traitor of All Traitors, here to stay until this gets made happening. Peace!


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